Experimental Demonstration of Millimeter-Wave Self-Bending Over-Obstacle Focused Beam Using Single Phase-Modulated 3-D Printed Dielectric Plate Structure

In this letter, we demonstrated a self-bending beam with over-obstacle focusing characteristics by using a single phase-modulated dielectric plate at 28 GHz. Unlike conventional near-field focusing, this self-bending over-obstacle focusing offers a promising solution to enhance the efficiency and reliability of wireless power transfer systems, particularly in scenarios where obstacles are present between the transmitter and receiver. The phase profile of proposed phase-modulated plate structure is a phase combination form of a radial phase plate and a Fourier lens. Benefiting from low-cost 3-D printing technology, a prototype of the proposed phase-modulated plate is fabricated. Based on full wave simulation and near-field measurement experiments, we analyzed this unique self-bending focusing behavior at 28 GHz in detail. The experiment results indicate that even if the obstacle of a metal plate is placed in front of the phase-modulated plate, the focus behind the obstacle can still be well observed.