Evaluation of Losses in 3-D-Printed Geodesic Lenses Using a Ray-Tracing Model

This article applies an in-house generalized ray-tracing (RT) model to efficiently compute both the radiation pattern and the efficiency of geodesic lenses with nonrotationally symmetric shapes. Losses due to ohmic effects and surface roughness are included in the model. These losses are very releva...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:IEEE transactions on antennas and propagation 2024-01, Vol.72 (1), p.234-242
Main Authors: Castillo-Tapia, Pilar, Rico-Fernandez, Jose, Clendinning, Sarah, Mesa, Francisco, Quevedo-Teruel, Oscar
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Additive manufacturing
Antenna radiation patterns
Antennas
Computational modeling
Computing time
geodesic lenses
Lens antennas
Lenses
losses
Metal plates
radiation efficiency
Ray tracing
ray-tracing (RT)
Rough surfaces
Surface roughness
Three dimensional printing
Water drops
Waveguides
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Summary:This article applies an in-house generalized ray-tracing (RT) model to efficiently compute both the radiation pattern and the efficiency of geodesic lenses with nonrotationally symmetric shapes. Losses due to ohmic effects and surface roughness are included in the model. These losses are very relevant for monolithic geodesic lens antennas as postprocessing techniques cannot be applied to reduce the surface roughness of internal part of the metallic plates. The model is validated by comparison with full-wave simulations for three different lenses: a circular flat parallel-plate waveguide (PPW), an elliptically compressed geodesic lens, and a water-drop lens. These results show a reduction in computational time by a factor of 600 using the RT model. A non-rotationally symmetric water drop lens has been manufactured in a monolithic piece using the laser powder-bed fusion (LPBF) technique with successful experimental results.
ISSN:0018-926X
1558-2221
DOI:10.1109/TAP.2023.3319156