Active lens antenna arrays

Microwave discrete lenses work like optical lenses, except they are discrete. An optical lens performs a Fourier transform of the object, and a microwave lens performs a discrete Fourier transform of the radio sources. Microwave lenses can be planar, easy to fabricate and scale, can use any polarization at the input and output, and can include active elements. Some interesting properties of active microwave lenses are: multiple beams with a single free-space feed, beam-switching and steering with no microwave phase-shifters, improved dynamic range in reception, high ERP in transmission with improved efficiency due to distributed amplification, and good reliability (graceful degradation). We have demonstrated 8-GHz, 10-GHz, 19/21-GHz, 25.5/27.5-GHz and 28-GHz active lens arrays, most both transmit and receive. In half-duplex T/R lenses, the routing of the signal can be done optically or with MMIC switches. Lens arrays can be followed by processing (digital or analog optical), in which case they become adaptive (smart) arrays with improved properties over standard adaptive antennas.

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