A novel high-gain directional lens antenna for terahertz band

Abstract

A novel high-gain directional lens antenna is numerically designed and experimentally tested in terahertz atmospheric transmission I window. The lens antenna consists of two components: a diagonal horn is adopted as the primary feed antenna, and a multilayer stacked lens consisting of the concentric hatch-crosses is used to focus the electromagnetic waves. The far-field characteristics of the horn antenna and the lens antenna are both studied. Furthermore, the effects of the number of periods of the lens and the focus diameter ratio on radiation characteristics are studied by using variablecontrolling approach. The experimental results show that both the diagonal horn antenna and the lens antenna have axisymmetric radiation patterns. The gain of the horn antenna ranges from 23.8 dB to 24.9 dB, and the 3 dB main lobe beamwidth varies from 10.8º to 12.4º. The gain of the lens antenna is higher than 26.4 dB, and the 3 dB main lobe beamwidth is lower than 4.8º across the operation bandwidth. The good focusing characteristics and great directionality indicate that the designed lens antenna is qualified for applications in THz wireless communication systems.