A five focal point three-dimensional bootlace lens with scanning in two planes

Bootlace lenses have traditionally offered great design flexibility without the excessive cost and reflectability difficulties of phased arrays. The authors propose improving the current lens technology by developing a five focal point lens with scanning capability in two planes. As with previously developed multifocal bootlace lenses, specifying several adjacent perfectly focused scanned beams gives a well-focused field of view across the region bounded by the focal points. The entire aperture is used for all beams, providing optimum efficiency for this antenna. This lens will be able to communicate with all points within a diamond-shaped angular region of space. Preliminary results indicate that the axes of this diamond can be as large as +or-40 degrees in azimuth and +or-25 degrees in elevation.<>