220-320 GHz Hemispherical Lens Antennas Using Digital Light Processed Photopolymers

Nonchanutt Chudpooti,Nutapong Somjit,Prayoot Akkaraekthalin,Nattapong Duangrit,Ian D Robertson

doi:10.1109/access.2019.2893230

Nonchanutt Chudpooti, Nutapong Somjit + Show 3 more

Open Access

https://doi.org/10.1109/access.2019.2893230

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Abstract

This paper presents a 220–320-GHz hemispherical lens antenna fabricated using photopolymer-based additive manufacture and directly fed by the standard WR-3 rectangular waveguide without any additional waveguide extension. The microfabrication process is based on digital light processing rapid prototyping using the Monocure 3DR3582C resin-based photocurable polymer. This gives various key advantages, including ease of antenna fabrication, manufacturing speed, and cost-effectiveness due to its rapid fabrication capability. Even though the photopolymer is found to have a loss tangent of 0.034 at 320 GHz, the all-polymer lens antennas still achieve a fractional bandwidth of 37%, covering the whole 220–320-GHz WR-3 waveguide band with a measured gain of approximately 16 dBi at 0° over the whole band. A measured return loss of better than 14 dB is achieved from 220 to 320 GHz with a half-power beamwidth of approximately 12°, which is relatively constant over the whole WR-3 band.

Highlights

Terahertz (THz) technology attracts more and more attention from researchers and engineers from all over the world because of its important potential applications, such as highresolution radars, imaging systems, sensing, security scanning, and high-speed communications [1]–[10]
MEASUREMENT RESULTS To measure the reflection coefficient and radiation pattern of the all-photopolymer lens antenna, a Keysight Technologies PNA-X N5242 vector network analyzer (VNA) with two OML WR-3 frequency extender heads was used with Line-Reflect-Line (LRL) calibration to measure the lens antennas from 220-320 GHz
The radiation pattern of the all-polymer lens antenna at different frequencies was measured and compared to the radiation pattern of the open-ended WR-3 waveguide

Summary

Introduction

Terahertz (THz) technology attracts more and more attention from researchers and engineers from all over the world because of its important potential applications, such as highresolution radars, imaging systems, sensing, security scanning, and high-speed communications [1]–[10]. All-photopolymer hemispherical lens antennas operating from 220 to 320 GHz are reported, fabricated with a DLP additive manufacturing process using Monocure3DR3582C resin-based photocurable polymer.

Results

Conclusion