Creation of a gradient index structure inside foam material - Microwave application for a lens antenna at 60 GHz

Jonathan Bor (1) , Olivier Lafond (1) , Mohamed Himdi (1)

1 IETR - Institut d'Électronique et des Technologies du numéRique

— Creating a gradient index into a dielectric structure is a major issue nowadays for the design of microwave components and antennas, especially for inhomogeneous lenses as Luneburg, Fresnel and Maxwell Fish-eye. The use of a foam material and a simple technological process can allow this. Because a foam material is composed of air bubbles, and core materials (resin, PVC, …), removing the air will increase the density of the foam and so increase its dielectric constant. The authors present a simple technological process to expel the air from a piece of foam in order to increase the permittivity of the foam. This is then applied to the design of a Luneburg lens antenna at 60 GHz.

Mots clés: Luneburg lens; foam material; gradient index; Index Terms — Characterization; controlled dielectric constant; microwave

Domaines: Traitement du signal et de l'image [eess.SP]

Jonathan Bor, Olivier Lafond, Mohamed Himdi. Creation of a gradient index structure inside foam material - Microwave application for a lens antenna at 60 GHz. Microwave Symposium (IMS), 2014 IEEE MTT-S International, Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers ( IEEE ), pp.1 - 4, 2014, 9781479938704. ⟨10.1109/MWSYM.2014.6848330⟩. ⟨hal-01102409⟩