A method for designing gradient refractive index (GRIN) lenses with additive manufacturing or 3D-printing at K-u band is presented. To demonstrate the potential of the method, we designed a Luneburg lens using a single low-loss dielectric material available for 3D-printers. The gradient index is realized by varying the local material fill density of the lens. We demonstrate with full wave simulations that the structure is able to transform a spherical electromagnetic wave to a plane wave. When the lens is fed with a rectangular waveguide, the overall antenna has a gain of 23 dBi with side lobe levels of -12.5 dB in K-u band. This lens, when integrated with a circular polarized feeding system, could find application for ground satellite communications.

Dielectric metasurfaces have opened promising possibilities to enable a versatile platform in the miniaturization of optical elements at visible and infrared frequencies. Due to high efficiency and compatibility with CMOS fabrication technology, silicon-based metasurfaces have a remarkable potential for a wide variety of optical devices. Adding tunability mechanisms to metasurfaces could be beneficial for their application in areas such as communications, imaging and sensing. In this paper, we propose an all-silicon reconfigurable metasurface based on the concept of glide symmetry. The reconfigurability is achieved by a phase modulation of the transmitted wave activated by a lateral displacement of the layers. The misalignment between the layers creates a new inner periodicity which leads to the formation of a metamolecule with a new sort of near-field interaction. The proposed approach is highly versatile for developing multifunctional and tunable metadevices at optical frequencies. As a proof of concept, in this paper, we design a bifunctional metadevice, as well as a tunable lens and a controllable beam deflector operating at 1.55 mu m.

Glide-symmetric structures have recently emerged as a smart choice to design planar lenses and electromagnetic bandgap materials. We discuss here the conditions under which a glide-symmetric structure is equivalent to a nonglide-symmetric structure with a reduced period. To this aim, we propose an analysis method based on network theory to efficiently derive the dispersive behavior of these periodic structures. Both phase and attenuation constants can be determined, with potential applications to both guiding and radiating structures. Retaining higher order modal interactions among cells helps to derive the dispersive behavior of periodic structures more accurately. Furthermore, we take advantage of the higher symmetry of these structures to decrease the computational cost by considering only one half or one-quarter of a unit cell instead of the entire cell. We study one and 2-D glide-symmetric structures and confirm the validity of our analysis with comparisons from commercial software.

In this letter, we propose a new technique to tune the bandgap in gap-waveguide technology based on broken glide-symmetric holey structures. We demonstrate that breaking the glide-symmetry in a proper manner provokes the presence of a passband within the bandgap due to the frequency sweep of the second propagating mode. This passband generates field leakage in the gap that is translated into a filtering property. This filtering effect may be used to reduce or eliminate filters in large complex devices. In order to avoid undesired coupling due to the leakage from the air gap between the plates, an absorbing sheet is proposed to dissipate the undesired fields. This idea has been numerically studied and experimentally validated with a specific design, a WR15-size gap-waveguide prototype with glide-symmetric holes with filtering properties.

Using the transformation optics method together with the basic properties of Maxwell equations, a compact nonmagnetic waveguide coupler is designed that can ideally couple all TMn modes. Two compression functions are proposed to provide a perfect smooth transition between the waveguides. This coupler can be used to guide and compress a vacuumfilled waveguide to a smaller waveguide with a predefined higher dielectric constant inside. The design method is validated by simulated examples using COMSOL Multiphysics.

In this article, we demonstrate how twist symmetries can be employed in the design of flat lenses. A lens design is proposed, consisting of 13 perforated metallic sheets separated by an air gap. The perforation in the metal is a two-dimensional array of complementary split-ring resonators. In this specific design, the twist symmetry is local, as it is only applied to the unit cell of the array. Moreover, the twist symmetry is an approximation, as it is only applied to part of the unit cell. First, we demonstrate that, by varying the order of twist symmetry, the phase delay experienced by a wave propagating through the array can be accurately controlled. Secondly, a lens is designed by tailoring the unit cells throughout the aperture of the lens in order to obtain the desired phase delay. Simulation and measurement results demonstrate that the lens successfully transforms a spherical wave emanating from the focal point into a plane wave at the opposite side of the lens. The demonstrated concepts find application in future wireless communication networks where fully-metallic directive antennas are desired.

Here, we demonstrate that the dispersion properties of printed lines can be controlled by using glide symmetry. Glide symmetry is introduced by means of corrugations in the printed lines. The glide-symmetric configuration provides a more linear propagation constant, avoiding the presence of stopband between first and second propagating modes. Additionally, the breakage of the glide-symmetric geometry introduces a tunable stopband that can be used for filtering.

The complete implementation and numerical validation of a compact cost-effective multiport parallel plate Luneburg lens antenna operating at 28 GHz is described in this paper. The lens design consists of two parallel plates separated by a gap where each of them contains a metasurface structure based on a new type of combined dielectric/holey unit cell periodically arranged in a glide-symmetric configuration. The required refractive index is achieved by a combination of coarse control by adding a dielectric in the gap, and fine tuning by changing the height of the holes. The simulations of the final prototype including a flare to ensure a smooth wave transition from the parallel plate configuration to air, as well as a coaxial-to-waveguide-to-parallel plate feeding, show a 20% bandwidth for 11.5 dB return loss, and the crosstalk remains below -15 dB for the same frequency band.

Gap waveguide has recently been proposed as a low-loss and low-cost technology for millimeter-wave components. The main advantage of the gap waveguide technology is that the microwave components can be manufactured in two metallic pieces that are assembled together without electrical contact. The leakage through a thin air gap between the two pieces is prevented by a 2-D periodic structure offering an electromagnetic bandgap (EBG). This EBG is conventionally implemented with metallic pins. Here, we propose the usage of a holey glide-symmetric EBG structure to design a $4\times 4$ slot array antenna that is fed with a TE40 mode. The TE40 excitation is designed based on a TE10-TE20 mode converter whose performance is initially evaluated by radiation pattern measurements. The final antenna, the $4\times 4$ slot array antenna, was manufactured in aluminum by computer numerical control (CNC) milling. The antenna has a rotationally symmetric radiation pattern that could find application as a reference antenna as well as for 5G point-to-point communications.

In this work we demonstrate a method for producing low-loss, non-squinting, directive leaky-wave antennas (LWAs) for millimeter-wave frequencies. The scanning behaviour of the radiation pattern arises from the dispersive nature of the waveguide mode, which is leaking out when opening the wave guiding structure. We propose a method to cancel the dispersive behaviour, by allowing the leaked waves to refract in a dispersive prism-lens. The proposed method allows for fully metallic implementation of the antenna, resulting in low losses. Furthermore, high directivity is easily achieved with a simple feeding. The corresponding theory is outlined, and the proposed method is used to design an antenna operating at 60 GHz. The obtained bandwidth, with less than 1 degrees beam scanning, is 20% in simulations and the realized gain of the antenna is 17 dB across the entire bandwidth. The design is proposed as an alternative to obtain high gain antennas for 5G applications, in which low losses and narrow beams are expected to be key features for mm-waves.