Compact Design of All Metal Luneburg Lens Antenna with Improved Beam Switching Features

This paper presents a simple, low-profile, and allmetal design of Luneburg lens antenna for X-band beamswitching applications. The proposed design appears to be a cost-effective solution for the antenna industry because of its compact size, lightweight, and simple switch networks offering easy fabrication and bulk production capabilities. The antenna ensures continuous coverage of ±90° with a maximum beam cross-over gain-loss of 5 dB that requires only nine switching states. A common impedance bandwidth of about 30% (8.5-11.5 GHz) is achieved for all switching states. Each switched beam has a half-power beamwidth (HPBW) of 15° and 80° in azimuthal and elevation planes, respectively that ensure a wide angular coverage. The all-metal configuration of the proposed antenna is expected to offer high power handling capabilities to meet current industry needs.