Review of 20 Years of Research on Microwave and Millimeter-wave Lenses at "Instituto de Telecomunicaço˜es"

Abstract

Starting from a challenge in the early 1990s to develop a highly shaped beam dielectric lens antenna for a pilot 150 Mb/s cellular mobile broadband system operating in the 60-GHz band, several new developments have been accomplished over more than 20 years at Instituto de Telecomunicações [1] in the areas of millimeter-wave shaped dielectric lens antennas and planar metamaterial lenses. We review here a few representative examples with numerical and experimental results, covering applications in mobile broadband communications, radiometry, satellite communications, multigigabit short-range communications, and sublambda near-field target detection.

Low-THz Dielectric Lens Antenna With Integrated Waveguide Feed

“…However, due to the nature of such structures, complex feed networks and fabrication tolerances may cause excessive losses and frequency shift of the operational band. Various implementations of lens antennas have been reported operating at millimeter-wave [6][7][8][9][10][11][12][13][14] and submillimeter-wave bands [15][16][17][18][19][20][21][22][23][24][25][26][27][28]. In [15,16], lenses incorporated in THz imaging systems based on CMOS technology with real time capabilities are proposed.…”

Three‐dimensional printed ABS plastic peanut‐lens with integrated ball grid array module for high‐data‐rate communications in F‐band

“…Before designing the lens, a printed antenna should be developed to feed the lens from its base. This configuration with the feed embedded in the lens is usually designated by integrated lens antenna [19] and it is much more compact than the common approach of having an external feed illuminating the lens surface.…”

3D printed dielectric lens for the gain enhancement of a broadband antenna

“…Besides suitable electromagnetic properties of the material, the choice largely depends on the fabrication and machining process. This often excludes the use of harder materials for the lens fabrication . Often these lenses come in a spherical shape, which is difficult to machine precisely and curvature results in increased size.…”

“…This often excludes the use of harder materials for the lens fabrication. 10 Often these lenses come in a spherical shape, which is difficult to machine precisely and curvature results in increased size. Flat lenses such as Gradient Refractive Index (GRIN) lenses circumvent the need for spherical dome shape, however, as the name implies it requires using different materials to be stacked together to achieve the gradient refractive index properties.…”