Design and performance evaluation of a dielectric flat lens for millimeter-wave applications

In this paper, a practical fabrication of a dielectric flat lens for millimeter-wave applications is presented. A previous theoretical dielectric flat lens antenna design, consisting of a set of concentric rings with different permittivity values for each, is now modeled and analyzed for a practical prototype fabrication and preliminary performance evaluation at 75 GHz. Preliminary measurements show that with the dielectric flat lens antenna prototype we can achieve beam-steering capabilities from -30^o to +30^o with around 17 dB of gain, and up to ±45^o beam-steering capabilities with around 15 dB of gain, with low side-lobe levels. This design also leads to a low-profile antenna configuration, easy to manufacture and low-cost, in order to integrate the whole structure in a compact millimeter-wave commercial wireless system.