Metal-only Reflecting Luneburg Lens Design for Sub-THz Applications
Abstract
This paper presents a metasurface (MTS) beamformer based on Reflecting Luneburg Lenses (RLLs) operating in the sub-THz range. RLLs consist of two circular parallel plate waveguides (PPWs) vertically stacked. The bottom wall of the lower PPW is loaded with a MTS with an axially symmetric modulation. The wave launched by a primary feed in the bottom PPW is collimated in the top one, so that a plane wave is identically generated for any azimuthal position of the source. The proposed solution uses a bed of nails, wellsuited to fabrication by Si micromachining, to implement the RLL refractive index profile. Simulation results yield a 30%-3dB directivity bandwidth around the center frequency (280 GHz). This device can be used as a beam-former for multi-beam antennas for Earth observation or for front-and back-hauling in beyond 5G wireless.
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