3D-Printed Conformal Metamaterial Lens with Multiple Beam Steering Functionalities

In this paper, a 3D transmitting cylindrical conformal meta-lens is proposed, as a height-to-phase controlled system for electromagnetic beam manipulation, namely beam-steering. The full structure is composed of 79 independently tunable metaatoms columns, using 3D printing, providing full 360° phase compensation. CST Microwave Studio is used for both the unit cell and full structure analysis, where a standard horn antenna is used to illuminate the 3D meta-lens. The far-field beam-steering mechanism of the proposed antenna is achieved by calculating the required phase compensations for each column of meta-atoms, to redirect the beam to a predefined angle. Simulation results show two unique beam scanning techniques, one for a single beam and the other one for a dual-beam steering, at different angles of 0°, 15°, 30°, and 45°, and this capability can be further extended to enable wider 2D beam scanning, with independent beam deflection for the dual-beam functionality, making the proposed meta-lens a potential low-cost candidate for high-gain beam steering mm-wave wireless communication systems.