Low cost compact electronically scanned millimeter wave antenna

Low cost, compact, electronically scanned antennas are needed for commercial as well as military applications. This antenna is being realized by constructing a Ka-band millimeter wave Rotman lens. Various lens designs were generated and input into a mathematical model. The core of the model is an integral equation formulation that relates the various field components in the waveguide apertures. The S-matrices output by the model were processed to provide beam patterns and insertion loss. The beam patterns, in turn, were evaluated to determine the sidelobe levels. Maximum sidelobe levels of the order of -30 dB and a one way insertion loss ⩽3 dB were obtained with this modeling process