Negative Index Metamaterial Lens for the Scanning Angle Enhancement of Phased-Array Antennas

A General Method for Designing a Radome to Enhance the Scanning Angle of a Phased Array Antenna

“…Other methods cannot achieve this [2,3]. In many applications, a linear relationship between the input angle and output angle is often desirable.…”

“…One way is the utilization of mechanical augmentations, which sacrifices the main advantage of a PAA (electronically scanning without the mechanical time delay). A good method is to extend the scanning angle of a PAA by using a specially designed radome, which can steer the beam produced by PAA to a larger angle [2,3]. In 2011, Lam et al, have proposed a Bucky-ball NIM lens that can steer beams produced by a PAA to the horizon [3].…”

“…Compared with the previous method [2,3], our method has the following advantages: firstly, the relationship between the incident beam produced by a PAA and the output beam steered by our radome can be designed in advance (e.g., a linear relationship can be achieved); secondly, the design process of our method is very simple and does not need any optimization; and thirdly, the shape of the radome can be designed arbitrarily which can be chosen according to the practical application.…”

Transformation-Optics-Based Design of a Metamaterial Radome for Extending the Scanning Angle of a Phased-Array Antenna

“…In this context, a suitably designed metamaterial radome appears as an attractive alternative to typical mechanical-augmentation systems, in terms of size, weight and complexity. A first metamaterialbased radome for extending the scanning angle was proposed and successfully realized by Lam et al [31], [32]. Such design is heavily based on brute-force numerical optimization, which results in a nonlinear (and difficult to control) relationship between the input and output angles.…”

Compact waveguide bandpass and bandstop filters using negative index material concepts

“…Since the demonstration of NIMs in 2000 [ 1], there has been an acceleration of emerging applications and devices using NIM or NIM‐inspired concepts. For example, NIMs have enabled transformation and gradient index optics to result in a RF cloaking device [2] as well as a lens to scan phased array antenna (PAA) beams to the horizon [3]. Another application is the realization of electrically small antennas (ESA) with radiation efficiency >90% [4].…”