Design and Fabrication of a Custom-Dielectric Fresnel Multi-Zone Plate Lens Antenna Using Additive Manufacturing Techniques

Dielectric flat plate lens antennas fabricated using 3D printing offer several attractive designs features including volumetric efficient geometries, beam-steering capabilities, and relative ease of fabrication. This paper seeks to synthesize and optimize a lens design for microwave applications utilizing additive manufacturing techniques to implement custom-tailored dielectric materials that overcome the inadequacies of commercially available dielectric resources. Starting with a multi-dielectric Fresnel zone plate lens geometry previously reported in this paper, techniques are implemented to achieve customized dielectric properties. A study of 3D printing materials is conducted to identify commercially available supplies that offer appropriate dielectric properties. Measurement techniques are reviewed to verify the accuracy of the material characteristics (both dielectric constant and loss tangent). Finally, three inhomogeneous concentric-ring lens designs are manufactured using the proposed methods and evaluated to assess the overall performance of the antenna gain patterns and beam-steering capabilities. The result is a low-profile antenna configuration, offering simple, and low-cost fabrication, which can be integrated into compact microwave wireless system applications.