We propose and validate experimentally a fully metallic geodesic Luneburg lens antenna operating in the subTHz band. The antenna produces three beams pointing at 0 degrees, 40 degrees, and -40 degrees. To facilitate the integration, the geodesic lens is folded to reduce its height to approximately 38.7% of the original Rinehart-Luneburg lens. To reduce potential leakage resulting from manufacturing and assembly tolerances at subTHz frequencies, the waveguide feeding structure has a deliberate small air gap alongside electromagnetic bandgap structures. This enhancement aims to bolster the robustness of the antenna, ensuring stable performance even in the presence of misalignments. The results demonstrate the robustness of geodesic lenses in the subTHz regime; showing their suitability for applications that require multibeam antennas at these high frequencies. The successful performance of geodesic lenses in the subTHz regime confirms its potential for operation at higher frequencies above 300 GHz.

This article investigates the dispersion properties of metasurfaces with hexagonal lattices, including potential higher symmetric configurations. We explore the relationships between the periodicity of hexagonal lattices and their dispersion properties, paying special attention to how hexagonal periodic structures can be analyzed with either a hexagonal primitive unit cell or a rectangular supercell. We also study the possibility of introducing higher symmetries into hexagonal periodic structures, including glide symmetry and mirrored half-turn symmetry. To complement and validate the analysis, we designed a graded-index Luneburg lens antenna with a dielectric-filled hexagonal holey structure working in the Ka-band. The antenna generates steerable highly directive beams from 26 GHz to 30 GHz, which corroborates our analysis. Our findings provide valuable insight into the dispersion properties of hexagonal-lattice metasurfaces and demonstrate the feasibility of using such structures in practical applications.

This paper focuses on the analysis of the dispersion diagram of a two-dimensional hexagonal periodic structure. The periodic inclusions are placed in a parallel plate waveguide environment and are circular holes located at the vertices of the hexagonal unit cells. The connection between the geometry of the periodic structure and the dispersion diagram is discussed. The wavevector information in the Brillouin zone is illustrated using the reciprocal lattice, from which the shape of the irreducible zone can be derived. The results give insight into the characteristics of the wave propagation characteristic of hexagonal units.

We propose and implement a geodesic half-Maxwell fish-eye (MFE)-lens antenna. The lens was optimized using an in-house physical optics (PO) code adapted for generalized geodesic lenses. The final antenna design was validated with commercial electromagnetic simulation software. The antenna combines a modulated geodesic half-MFE lens and a transition to a linear flare, which is needed to preserve the linear polarization in the aperture. The antenna prototype, designed to operate in the K-a-band, was manufactured with computer numerical control (CNC) milling and measured in an anechoic chamber. The design provides continuous beam scanning because of a mechanically actuated feed. Promising beam scanning properties are demonstrated in an angular range of +/- 45 degrees with a scan loss below 3 dB, as well as good frequency stability from 26 to 32 GHz. Since the antenna is fully metallic, its radiation efficiency is high (approximately 90%).

We investigate dispersion properties of a hexagonal dielectric periodic structure that can be used to engineer dielectric graded-index lenses. The connection between the geometry of the hexagonal periodic structure and its symmetries is explained. Furthermore, we demonstrate that a hexagonal structure with increased symmetry is more isotropic than its conventional counterpart. To validate our analysis, we designed, manufactured, and measured a planar Luneburg lens antenna. The antenna has a neat fan-shaped beam from 23 to 31 GHz. The results validate the broadband operation of the periodic structure and could be of interest for the design of cost-effective antennas.

Here, we propose a generalized ray-tracing (RT) model to accurately compute the radiation patterns and radiation efficiency of lossy non-rotationally symmetric geodesic lens antennas. The RT model uses geometrical optics to obtain the ray paths from the source to the aperture, ray tube theory to calculate the field amplitude distribution, and Kirchhoff's diffraction formula to compute the radiation pattern. Losses in geodesic lenses are mainly produced by the finite conductivity and roughness of the metallic plates. These losses are added to the calculation of the radiation pattern to estimate the radiation efficiency of the antenna. To demonstrate the accuracy of the proposed RT model, a geodesic half-Maxwell fish-eye lens is designed. Radiation patterns, scan losses, and radiation efficiency are calculated. These results agree well with those computed by full-wave simulations.

In this work, a half Maxwell fisheye geodesic lens is proposed. This lens is used to produce a beam-scanning antenna operating at Ka-band, suitable for 5G/6G and satellite communications. The proposed antenna has a wide beam coverage of 90 degrees from -45 degrees to 45 degrees with scan loss below 3 dB, and a maximum gain of 24.3 dBi at 30 GHz. The size of this lens antenna is almost half that of a conventional Luneburg-Rinehart lens antenna.

This paper presents a model developed to numerically determine the radiation pattern presented by a given geodesic lens. A simplified model describing the trajectory of a TEM-mode wave through the lens was required as a time-efficient alternative to commercial software. Geometrical optics have been used to approximate the ray trajectory from the source to the aperture of the lens. The power conservation in ray tubes is then used to evaluate the amplitude of the electric field in the aperture, knowing the distribution at the source. The Kirchhoff diffraction formula is finally numerically approximated to evaluate the farfield. Three examples have been simulated with our algorithm and compared with full-wave simulations. We demonstrate that our assumptions provide a good agreement with full-wave simulation while reducing significantly the computation time, thus providing an efficient method for design optimization. Most notably, this more general formulation may be extended to non-rotationally symmetric lenses.

This paper discusses the dispersion diagrams of holey periodic metasurfaces, which have been computed by analyzing either the primitive unit cell or a supercell of the structure. Particularly, the connection of the dispersion diagram of the supercell to the standard diagram of the primitive unit cell is investigated. The appearance of additional "anomalous" modes is explained and exemplified in the case of a rectangular supercell composed of two or three square unit cells.