Title :
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
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;
Conference_Titel :
Microwave Symposium Digest (MTT), 2011 IEEE MTT-S International
Conference_Location :
Baltimore, MD
Print_ISBN :
978-1-61284-754-2
Electronic_ISBN :
0149-645X
DOI :
10.1109/MWSYM.2011.5972738
