Slim Luneburg lens for antenna applications

Area of Science:

• Optics and Photonics
• Antenna Engineering
• Electromagnetics

Background:

• Luneburg lenses offer unique optical properties but are impractical for antenna systems due to their large size.
• Conventional antenna systems often face limitations in directivity, side-lobe levels, and steering capabilities.

Purpose of the Study:

• To propose a transformation method for reducing the physical profile of Luneburg lenses.
• To adapt the transformed Luneburg lens for practical antenna applications.
• To numerically evaluate the performance of the slim Luneburg lens.

Main Methods:

• A geometric transformation was applied to the original Luneburg lens.
• The transformed lens was discretized and simplified for fabrication.
• Numerical simulations were performed to analyze the antenna properties.

Main Results:

• The transformed Luneburg lens maintains the unique properties of the original lens while significantly reducing its profile.
• The slim Luneburg lens demonstrated high directivity and low side-lobes, comparable to or better than conventional antennas.
• Excellent wide-angle beam steering capabilities were achieved.

Conclusions:

• The transformed slim Luneburg lens is a viable and advantageous alternative to conventional antenna systems.
• This innovation enables practical implementation of Luneburg lens technology in antenna design.
• The proposed lens offers superior performance in directivity, side-lobe suppression, and beam steering.