Active- integrated aperture lens antenna

Abstract: Luneburg lens antennas are gaining popularity in new communication systems, as increasingly higher frequencies are being used. Broadband fully- metallic implementations of Luneburg lenses, such as Rinehart- Luneburg lenses, constitute simple, cheap and efficient beamformers. However, Luneburg lenses need to have one amplifier per port, which constrains the maximum power that can be transmitted and increases the cost of the system. In this thesis, an investigation to integrate amplifiers within the aperture of Luneburg lenses is conducted. This concept allows for increasing the maximum transmitted power with reduced costs. Special attention has been paid to the design principles. Active integration without altering the Luneburg lens functionality has been a key task in this work. A design in Kaband (2640 GHz) has been also exemplified in order to show the feasibility of the concept. The final design includes transitions to a PCB in the aperture of the Luneburg lens, where amplifiers can be mounted. Good results were obtained in terms of directivity and side- lobe levels, and the antenna achieves a scanning range up to ±64° with reasonable scan losses.