Millimeter-Wave Profiled Lens Antenna for 6G Beam-Steering Applications

Abstract

This manuscript presents a profiled dielectric lens antenna at the millimeter-wave band (W-band) with an efficient beam-steering ability. The lens has an aperture radius of 3.2$\lambda$, where $\lambda$ is the operating wavelength at 94 GHz. Linearly polarized microstrip patches have been conceived for the illumination of the lens. A 2D array of 16 patches is conceived. One of these patches is excited at a time and the remaining elements are terminated with a matched load. The overall antenna demonstrates 16 steerable beam directions. The main beam can be efficiently steered over -21° to +21°. It exhibits a peak gain of about 21.8 dBi at 94 GHz. The design is compact, light weight, inexpensive, and needs simpler signal processing as there is no phase relationship between the elements.