All-Quartz Integrated Lens Antenna for Surface Wave Loss Reduction

This work proposes an all-quartz integrated lens antenna for the first time. The antenna feed and lens materials are both made of quartz. The antenna is designed to work at 26 GHz and has the advantages of small size and reduced surface wave loss. Two antennas, a hemispheric lens and an extended hemispheric lens, are demonstrated. The hemispheric lens has an area of 30 × 30 mm2 and a height of 16 mm, while the extended hemispheric lens, with the same area, has a height of 26 mm. The measured peak gain of the extended hemispheric integrated lens antenna is 15.49 dBi, and the simulated peak gain is 17.68 dBi. The electric-field distribution was analyzed, and two hemispheric lens and extended hemispheric lens antennas of the same size were designed on PCB substrate for comparative analysis. The measured results validate the impact of the surface wave effect on the gain of the lens antenna proposed in this study.