A 35 GHz 8 × 8 Phased Array-Fed Dielectric Lens with 80-degrees Scan Angle for 5G Communications

This work presents a demonstration of a low-cost H - plane dielectric lens designed to enhance the beam scanning capability and increase the gain at high scan angles for a 64-element phased array antenna operating at 35 GHz. Utilizing a single polarization design, the dielectric lens employs conic surfaces optimized through ray tracing techniques, specifically shooting and bouncing rays, to achieve wide beam scanning while managing trade-offs between computational efficiency and accuracy. The design features a minimized form factor with lens dimensions optimized for extended scanning capabilities up to 80 degrees. The H-plane dielectric lens is fabricated using polyethylene, demonstrating an enhancement in steering angles and a peak gain increase of up to 14.5 dB at 80 degrees. Application areas are in extending the coverage of phased-arrays to wide scan angles which is highly useful in 5G small-base-stations.