STUDY OF COMPACT MICROWAVE METAMATERIAL-BASED LENS ANTENNA AND ARRAY

Abstract

The concepts of metamaterial (MTM)/metasurface (MTS) and transformation optics (TO) provide a general approach to flatten the non-planar lenses with artificially engineered material. Recently, the MTM/MTS-based lens (metalens) has attracted much attention due to its compactness, lightweight, and planar figure. However. The relatively large focal length incurs the issue of limited volume reduction, severe reflection from the lens surface, and limited beamscanning range with increased spillover loss, which remains a challenge to the design of compact metalens antennas. With the primary objective to realize compact metalens antennas having both diminished lens size and focal length, this thesis aims to: 1) propose the implementation conditions of TO in Luneburg lenses with on-surface foci after transformation; 2) develop realizable TO-based Luneburg lens antennas with on- or near-surface focal plane for compact beamsteering applications; 3) introduce a compact metalens array architecture to further reduce the focal length of a large aperture metalens antenna.