Multibeam Antenna for Ka-Band CubeSat Connectivity Using 3-D Printed Lens and Antenna Array

In this letter, the design of a passive multibeam lens antenna is proposed for the CubeSat space communication system as an alternative application of a 2-D microstrip antenna array that has originally been designed for a 39-GHz 5G multi-user, multiple-input, multiple-output (MU-MIMO) system. The half-ellipsoid lens is 3-D printed using stereolithography technology. The antenna prototype is capable of selecting the main beam between 16 different directions with a gain ranging from 14 to 16 dBi and a half-power beamwidth of 14
$^\circ$
–18
$^\circ$
. The measurements carried out in an anechoic chamber show good agreement with numerical simulations. The presented prototype shows that by employing 3-D printing technologies existing antennas can be easily and inexpensively converted to switched-beam or multibeam solutions.