The Use of a Pair of 3D-Printed near Field Superstructures to Steer an Antenna Beam in Elevation and Azimuth

Hayat, T; Afzal, MU; Ahmed, F; Zhang, S; Esselle, KP; Vardaxoglou, J

The Use of a Pair of 3D-Printed near Field Superstructures to Steer an Antenna Beam in Elevation and Azimuth

Hayat, T Afzal, MU Ahmed, F

Zhang, S Esselle, KP Vardaxoglou, J

Permalink

Publisher:: Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers
Publication Type:: Journal Article
Citation:: IEEE Access, 2021, 9, pp. 153995-154010
Issue Date:: 2021-01-01

Open Access

Copyright Clearance Process

Recently Added
In Progress
Open Access

This item is open access.

Adobe PDF

Download full textAdobe PDF (5.19 MB)

View on publisher's site

View statistics

Full metadata record

Field	Value	Language
dc.contributor.author	Hayat, T
dc.contributor.author	Afzal, MU
dc.contributor.author	Ahmed, F https://orcid.org/0000-0003-0727-7961
dc.contributor.author	Zhang, S
dc.contributor.author	Esselle, KP
dc.contributor.author	Vardaxoglou, J
dc.date.accessioned	2022-03-15T03:01:04Z
dc.date.available	2022-03-15T03:01:04Z
dc.date.issued	2021-01-01
dc.identifier.citation	IEEE Access, 2021, 9, pp. 153995-154010
dc.identifier.issn	2169-3536
dc.identifier.issn	2169-3536
dc.identifier.uri	http://hdl.handle.net/10453/155236
dc.description.abstract	The paper presents a method to design beam-steering antennas using a pair of 3D printed perforated dielectric structures (PDSs) placed in the near-field region of a base antenna, which has a fixed beam. Detailed designs and quantitative comparison of two beam-steering antenna systems are presented. One antenna system has a conical horn antenna and the other uses a resonant-cavity antenna (RCA) as the base antenna. In both cases, the first PDS transforms the phase distribution of the aperture near field and hence tilts the antenna beam to an offset angle. The second PDS, placed above the first, introduces an additional linear progression to the phase of the near field. The two PDSs are rotated independently to steer the beam in both azimuth and elevation. The PDSs have been 3D-printed using acrylonitrile butadiene styrene (ABS) filaments. Each prototype was fabricated in about 16 hours, weighs 300 grams, and costs approximately 5.5 US Dollars. The measured results show that, at the operating frequency of 11 GHz, the RCA-based system has a peak gain of 17.7 dBi compared to the 16.6 dBi gain obtained with the horn-based system. In a fixed E-plane, the variation in the aperture near-field phase of the horn antenna (115°) is much less than that of the RCA (360°). This reduces the efforts required for phase correction and hence led to the former having a larger 3dB measured gain bandwidth of 1.2 GHz compared with the 0.7 GHz bandwidth of the latter, but at the cost of 35.6% increase in the total height of the antenna system.
dc.language	English
dc.publisher	Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers
dc.relation.ispartof	IEEE Access
dc.relation.isbasedon	10.1109/ACCESS.2021.3126700
dc.rights	info:eu-repo/semantics/openAccess
dc.subject	08 Information and Computing Sciences, 09 Engineering, 10 Technology
dc.title	The Use of a Pair of 3D-Printed near Field Superstructures to Steer an Antenna Beam in Elevation and Azimuth
dc.type	Journal Article
utslib.citation.volume	9
utslib.for	08 Information and Computing Sciences
utslib.for	09 Engineering
utslib.for	10 Technology
pubs.organisational-group	/University of Technology Sydney
pubs.organisational-group	/University of Technology Sydney/Faculty of Engineering and Information Technology
pubs.organisational-group	/University of Technology Sydney/Faculty of Engineering and Information Technology/School of Electrical and Data Engineering
utslib.copyright.status	open_access	*
pubs.consider-herdc	false
dc.date.updated	2022-03-15T03:00:59Z
pubs.publication-status	Published
pubs.volume	9

Abstract:

The paper presents a method to design beam-steering antennas using a pair of 3D printed perforated dielectric structures (PDSs) placed in the near-field region of a base antenna, which has a fixed beam. Detailed designs and quantitative comparison of two beam-steering antenna systems are presented. One antenna system has a conical horn antenna and the other uses a resonant-cavity antenna (RCA) as the base antenna. In both cases, the first PDS transforms the phase distribution of the aperture near field and hence tilts the antenna beam to an offset angle. The second PDS, placed above the first, introduces an additional linear progression to the phase of the near field. The two PDSs are rotated independently to steer the beam in both azimuth and elevation. The PDSs have been 3D-printed using acrylonitrile butadiene styrene (ABS) filaments. Each prototype was fabricated in about 16 hours, weighs 300 grams, and costs approximately 5.5 US Dollars. The measured results show that, at the operating frequency of 11 GHz, the RCA-based system has a peak gain of 17.7 dBi compared to the 16.6 dBi gain obtained with the horn-based system. In a fixed E-plane, the variation in the aperture near-field phase of the horn antenna (115°) is much less than that of the RCA (360°). This reduces the efforts required for phase correction and hence led to the former having a larger 3dB measured gain bandwidth of 1.2 GHz compared with the 0.7 GHz bandwidth of the latter, but at the cost of 35.6% increase in the total height of the antenna system.

Please use this identifier to cite or link to this item:

http://hdl.handle.net/10453/155236