Lens Antenna with Feed Array for Beam Steering
A lens antenna with an integrated feed array can be used for beam-steering applications with high directivity. The beam is electrically steered by switching between the feeding elements of the array. The lenses are studied using an in-house developed ray-tracing simulation program. The conventional integrated lens types are extended hemispherical lens and elliptical lens.
A lens antenna demonstrator has been designed, manufactured and tested. The designed lens was manufactured at IETR. The lens is an extended hemispherical lens made of Teflon and its diameter is 100 mm. A LTCC feed array was designed for the lens at VTT. The designed feed array consists of eight slot coupled patch antennas in a linear configuration. The desired beam-steering capability was demonstrated with radiation pattern measurements at 77 GHz. The antenna was measured in a planar near-field scanning range.
Figure 1. A photograph of the lens and the measurement setup. Normalised measured and simulated radiation patterns. Results are shown only for two of the eight elements: the feed elements with 0 mm and 21 mm offsets from the centre of the lens.
Contact person: Juha Ala-Laurinaho