Spline-enhanced synthesis of metamaterial lenses for linear array miniaturization by the SbD-QCTO

The synthesis of a graded-index isotropic radome for the miniaturization of linear arrays is addressed. The combination of a System-by-Design paradigm with a Quasi-Conformal Transformation Optics - Source Inversion technique is proposed to enable the reduction of the array aperture while also avoiding anisotropic materials within the synthesized lens. To achieve this goal, the QCTO part of the problem is formulated considering a spline-shaped virtual layout, whose contour represents a degree-of-freedom in the design procedure. A preliminary validation is reported to illustrate the potentialities of the introduced design methodology and its applicability in several scenarios.