An X-band Luneburg Lens antenna fabricated by rapid prototyping technology

Author

Liang, Min ; Ng, Wei-Ren ; Chang, Kihun ; Gehm, Michael E. ; Xin, Hao

Author_Institution

Electr. & Comput. Eng. Dept., Univ. of Arizona, Tucson, AZ, USA

fYear

2011

fDate

5-10 June 2011

Firstpage

1

Lastpage

4

Abstract

In this paper, a 3-D Luneburg Lens has been designed, fabricated and characterized. Refractive index control of the lens is based on the mixing ratio of air voids and a polymer. The 12 cm (4λ₀ at 10 GHz) diameter lens is designed to work at X-band. The effective permittivity of the unit cell is estimated by effective medium theory and calculated by the finite-element simulation software Ansoft HFSS. Fabrication is implemented by a polymer jetting rapid prototyping method. In the measurement, the lens antenna is fed by an X-band waveguide. The half-power beam width of the antenna is 14 degrees and no obvious side lobe is found in the measurement above the noise floor.

Keywords

finite element analysis; lens antennas; permittivity; rapid prototyping (industrial); waveguides; 3D Luneburg lens; Ansoft HFSS; X-band Luneburg lens antenna; X-band waveguide; air voids; finite-element simulation software; frequency 10 GHz; medium theory; permittivity estimation; polymer jetting rapid prototyping method; rapid prototyping technology; refractive index control; size 12 cm; unit cell; Antenna measurements; Filling; Lenses; Mathematical model; Permittivity; Polymers; Gradient Index; Lens Antenna; Luneburg Lens; Rapid Prototyping;

fLanguage

English

Publisher

ieee

Conference_Titel

Microwave Symposium Digest (MTT), 2011 IEEE MTT-S International

Conference_Location

Baltimore, MD

ISSN

0149-645X

Print_ISBN

978-1-61284-754-2

Electronic_ISBN

0149-645X

Type

conf

DOI

10.1109/MWSYM.2011.5972738

Filename

5972738