Geodesic Lens Antenna for sub-THz Imaging

Abstract: The Millimiter Wave (mmW) frequency band, characterized by a high atmospheric attenuation and wide available bandwidth has become of big interest for high accuracy radar imaging applications. The continuous development of the Monolithic Microwave Integrated Circuit (MMIC) technology yields to the appearance of different commercial-off-the-shelf (COTS) radar transceivers at that frequency band, where the antennas are fully integrated into the chip. Lenses are being used to correct the phase front of those MMIC improving the directivity and therefore the operating range. Fully metallic geodesic lenses offer the attractive properties of common dielectric lenses without their material losses. In this master thesis, a specific water-drop geodesic lens antenna with focusing properties has been designed to enhance the radar imaging capabilities of the TRA- 120-002 transceiver working at the 120 GHz Industrial, Scientific and Medical (ISM) band. Different transitions for the antenna singular points have been studied to minimize reflections without increasing aberrations in the lens. An optimized design of a radiating flare is shown where corrugations are used to improve the antenna radiation pattern. A small feeding horn antenna with a bed-of-nails Electromagnetic Band-Gap (EBG) metasurface has been designed to maximize the energy transmission between the COTS transceiver and the lens. Finally, a glide-symmetric holey metasurface has been added to prevent leakage between the antenna plates due to manufacturing limitations. The results show that a fully metallic folded lens antenna with 5l radius can achieve directivities higher than 19.5 dB and side-lobe levels (SLL) between -10.5 dB and -9.2 dB within the 119 GHz - 125.5 GHz band while having an image point located at 30 cm from the antenna.