Monday, January 31, 2011

Monday, January 17, 2011

Upcoming AP-S Talk: Multiple-Beam Planar Lens Antenna Prototype

Greetings AP-S. We hope the new year is treating you well thus far.

The IEEE AP-S is excited to inform you about an upcoming seminar entitled, "Multiple-Beam Planar Lens Antenna Prototype." This seminar is based on work by Paul Elliot and Dr. Kiersten C. Kerby from MITRE Corporation.

Paul Elliot is a Lead Engineer at the MITRE Corporation in Bedford, Massachusetts. He works on antennas for communications, navigation, and radar.

Dr. Kiersten C. Kerby is a Senior Engineer at MITRE Corporation, where she develops antennas for radar and other applications.

The seminar will be held on Wednesday January 26th at 6PM and located at the MIT Lincoln Laboratory A-Cafe, 244 Wood Street, Lexington, MA. For directions please see: http://www.ll.mit.edu/about/map.html.

For more details, please visit:
http://www.ieeeboston.org/org/subgroups/antennas_propagation.html

Please invite friends and colleagues to this event. The seminar and discussion should be quite interesting and fulfilling. We look forward to seeing you there.

Christy F. Cull, AP-S

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ABSTRACT
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A new low-height X/Ku-band (8.2-12.2 GHz) antenna was designed, built and tested which provides full 360 degree coverage around azimuth using multiple beams, covering the low elevation angles with peak gain of 12 dBi at 10 GHz. Computer modeling showed that about 18 dBi gain can also be achieved using this type of lens. The antenna shape is circular and flat with feed ports in a circle near the periphery. Switching between beams is accomplished by switching between beam ports. The prototype antenna built was 13.3 cm diameter by 1.56 cm high, which is approximately 41⁄2 wavelengths wide by 1⁄2 wavelengths thick at 10 GHz. The weight was 259g. Each feed port drives a small monocone to feed the lens, which radiates a beam close to endfire on the opposite side from the driven feed port. This flat lens antenna is extremely wideband and radiates a leaky wave from the surface of the beamforming lens, so it combines the functions of beamformer and planar radiating aperture into one structure, thereby achieving lower height and weight and simpler construction than other antenna types with 360° coverage.