Realization of Modified Elliptical Shaped Dielectric Lens Antenna for X Band Applications with 3D Printing Technology

Abstract

Placing dielectric lens structures into an antenna's aperture has proven to be one of the most reliable methods of enhancing its gain. However, the selected material and the prototyping method usually limit their fabrication process. With the advances in 3D printing technology and their applications, the microwave designs that were either impractical or impossible in the past to manufacture using traditional methods, are now feasible. Herein, a novel prototyping method by using 3D-printer technology for low-cost, broadband, and high gain dielectric lens designs has been presented. Firstly, the elliptical lens design has been modeled in the 3D EM simulation environment. Then fused deposition modeling based 3D-printing method has been used for the fabrication of the dielectric lens. The measured results of the 3D printed antenna show that the lens antenna has a realized gain of 17 to 20.5 dBi over 8-12 GHz. Moreover, the comparison of the prototyped antenna with its counterpart dielectric lens antenna in the literature has indicated that the proposed method is more efficient, more beneficial, and has a lower cost.