3D-Printed All-Metal Terahertz Multibeam Lens Antenna Based on Photonic Crystal

Abstract

This paper presents a realization of a <italic xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">D</i> -band multibeam lens antenna based on 3D printing. It extends all-metal Luneburg lens to terahertz band for the first time, and demonstrates the application potential of 3D-printed antenna in the associated communication and radar systems. Compared with the traditional <italic xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">D</i> -band antenna, the structure of our antenna is simple, which is only composed of a Luneburg lens and a waveguide feeder array. On this basis, we manufacture an antenna prototype through the process of projection micro-stereolithography 3D printing combined with magnetron metal sputtering for verification. It has the advantages of low cost, high precision and integrated processing. The measured results of the prototype indicate that the reflection coefficients are below –10dB within 110GHz to 170GHz, and its bandwidth is 42.8%. Also, a gain higher than 20dBi is obtained at the center frequency, and multiple beams scan loss is lower than 1.6dB from –45°to +45°, which agree well with the simulation results.