Here, we propose a fully-metallic implementation of a Luneburg lens operating at Ka-band with potential use for 5G communications. The lens is implemented with a parallel plate that is loaded with glide-symmetric holes. These holes are employed to produce the required equivalent refractive index profile of a Luneburg lens. Glide symmetry and inner metallic pins are employed to increase the equivalent refractive index. The lens is fed with rectangular waveguides designed to match the height of the parallel plate, and it is ended with a flare to minimize the reflections.

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Antennas for future communication systems are required to be highly directive and steerable to compensate for the high path loss in the millimeter-wave band. In this work, we propose a linear array of modulated geodesic Luneburg lens (the so-called water drop lens) antennas operating at 56-62 GHz. The lens array antenna features two-dimensional beam scanning with low structural complexity. The lenses are fully metallic and implemented in parallel plate waveguides, meaning that they are highly efficient. Each lens is fed with 13 rectangular waveguides surrounded by glide-symmetric holes to suppress leakage. The lenses provide 110 degree beam coverage in the H-plane with scan losses below 1 dB. In order to scan in the E-plane, we use a feeding network based on a 1:4 power divider and three phase shifters. In this configuration, the array can scan 60 degrees in the E-plane, albeit with higher scanning losses than in the Hplane. The lens array is manufactured and a good agreement between simulated and experimental results is obtained.

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