This is the monthly networking meeting for faculty and staff affiliated with NDnano. For more information on affiliating with the Center, please contact Heidi Deethardt at deethardt.1@nd.edu.

Wednesday, May 1
Noon-1:00 pm • W210 Duncan Student Center

Presenter

Jonathan Chisum, Associate Professor, Electrical Engineering

Title

The Modern GRIN-lens: A low-cost and power-efficient beam-scanning antenna for next-generation wireless networks

Abstract

The concept of a Gradient-Index (GRIN) lens antenna has been around since Maxwell first proposed the Fisheye lens in 1854. By the mid-20^th century there were many closed form designs for beam-scanning GRIN lenses including the Luneburg, Eaton, and Gutman lenses. These lenses offered the promise of wideband operation and passive (low-power) beam-scanning over a wide field-of-view (FoV). However, these spherical lenses were bulky and, in order to provide beam-scan, they radiated from the side of the sphere. When mounted on plane surfaces (e.g., side of a building or vehicle body), scan performance suffered dramatically. Finally, the beams were discretely switched across the FoV and their shape (e.g., sidelobe level) was fixed at design time. For these reasons GRIN lens antennas were eventually eclipsed by the dynamically reconfigurable and more capable phased array. More recently, owing to advances in numerical simulation and optimization as well as additive manufacturing, the GRIN lens is being re-examined as a low-cost and low-power companion to the phased-array. This talk will summarize our recent work in: 1) numerical tools for the rapid design and optimization of flat, high-performance beam-scanning lenses, 2) novel architectures including multi-lens systems for improved scan loss and phased-array feeding for dynamic beam shaping, and 3) 3D-printing of compact (thin), wideband, and low-cost GRIN lenses.

Register to attend the May 1 luncheon