A Millimeter-Wave 3D-Printed Dual-Polarized Wideband Luneburg Lens Antenna

Abstract

In this paper, a simple millimeter wave three-dimensional (3D) printed Luneburg lens antenna is proposed. A novel printable spherical lens geometry is constructed by combining cubical-lattice-type and rod-type gradient index materials. The lens is fed by a horn whose aperture is square, which ensures that the radiation patterns of E- and H- planes of the feed is almost symmetrical. The radiation characteristics of the lens with varied polarizations and incident directions for excitations are studied. The dual polarization radiation beam generated by the lens antenna can scan in a wide range and has stable performance in a wide working band. In whole Ka-band, |S11| is lower than – 17.5 dB, that is the impedance bandwidth of wider than 40%. The promising radiation patterns with the dual polarization scanning in an angular range of ±60° are obtained.