X band 3D-Printed Electrically-Small Luneburg Lens

A low-cost electrically-small dielectric lens for improving the maximum radiation gain of an aperture antenna utilizing a new additive manufacturing filling technique is presented in this paper. The required dielectric constants for an electrically small lens are obtained through optimization in simulation software. Utilizing this filling method, a fully printed low-cost lens using one material is fabricated at X band. The proposed lens increases the maximum radiation gain of an open standard waveguide by 15 dB, while an aperture efficiency of 59% is achieved.