Beam shaping and gain enhancement using a diffractive optical element (DOE) lens

Dielectric and metamaterial lenses have been designed for gain enhancement and beam shaping. The present work focuses on the design of a diffractive optical element (DOE) lens for the same purpose, the advantage being that it is much thinner lighter and easy to fabricate. Gain enhancement is illustrated by modeling the DOE lens in CST microwave studio and placing it in front of different antennas. The antennas consist of a horn, slotted waveguide, and microstrip patch array. Beam shaping and focusing is clearly illustrated. It is seen that the size of the lens is proportional to gain increase which can be as high as 18 dB enhancement for a 45-GHz horn antenna. The lens, which is made from rexolite, can be easily fabricated and experimental validation of simulated results is under progress.