A Tunable Beamforming Ferroelectric Lens for Millimeter Wavelength Ranges

Abstract

agaltynnikov@etu.ru (A.A.); abkozyrev@etu.ru (A.K.) * Correspondence: raplatonov@etu.ru; Tel.: +7-812-234-4809 † These authors contributed equally to this work. Abstract:The advanced design of a millimeter-wave quasi-optical beamforming device (QOBD) based on the ferroelectric ceramic was elaborated and considered. Among the advantages of the proposed design are simplicity and cost-effectiveness in contrast to conventional analog and digital beamforming devices based on array antennas. The use of ferroelectric ceramic in the QOBD design allows operating in a wide frequency range up to 100 GHz. The advanced topology of discrete radiotransparent electrodes to provide a realization of different beamforming functions such as beam focusing and beam scanning was considered. The prototype of the proposed QOBD was designed to operate at 60 GHz. The measured radiation pattern of the QOBD prototype is in good agreement with the simulated one. Measurements demonstrate decreasing of beamwidth of the primary antenna radiation pattern by the lens prototype operating in the beam focusing regime.

Millimeter-Wave Reflector Based on a Ferroelectric Material with Electrical Beam Steering

“…This leads to the discretization of the deflected wavefront, and thus, the quality of the reflector radiation pattern directly depends on the ETMs' sizes. To provide less distortion of the reflector radiation pattern, the ETMs' sizes must be less than half of the operating wavelength [17].…”