Optimisation of flat dielectric lenses using an interior point method

Abstract: This thesis aims to study how flat dielectric lenses can be designed. The usage of flat lenses is steadily increasing as they are smaller and less bulky than traditional convex lenses. Instead of a lens with a curved surface the permittivity in the lens is varied to achieve the same effect. Two different computational methods were investigated when approaching this problem: physical and geometrical optics. In physical optics the incoming radio waves are treated as waves in contrast to geometrical optics where it is considered as rays. Both methods are used as approximations of Maxwell's equations. The variation of permittivity in the lens was formulated as an optimisation problem where the lens' focusing abilities were maximised. The optimisation was implemented with an interior point method. Both arbitrary permittivity distributions as well as predetermined distributions were examined in this work. All optimised lens models were then simulated in a full wave commercial simulation software to verify and compare the two. The simulations showed that both approaches gave promising results as they focused the electromagnetic wave in a satisfying way. However the physical optics approach was more prominent as the focused radio waves had a much higher magnitude than the approach based on geometrical optics. The conclusion was therefore that physical optics is the preferred approach.