Low-cost plastic lens fabricated in FDM 3D-printing technology targeting high data rate wireless links above 200 GHz
Lacombe, E.
; Gianesello, F.
; Bisognin, A.
; Luxey, C.
; Titz, D.
; Gulan, H.
; Zwick, T.
;
Costa, J.R.
;
Fernandes, C. A.
Low-cost plastic lens fabricated in FDM 3D-printing technology targeting high data rate wireless links above 200 GHz, Proc International Conf. on Electromagnetics in Advanced Applications - ICEAA, Verona, Italy, Vol. , pp. 1250 - 1253, September, 2017.
Digital Object Identifier: 10.1109/ICEAA.2017.8065498
Abstract
With the booming of data traffic, operating frequencies of wireless systems are evolving towards the sub-THz spectrum in order to enhance the capacity of communication networks. Therefore, gain requirements of sub-THz antenna systems are crucial in order to allow satisfactory wireless data transfer. A good solution for improving the gain of integrated antennas consists in using a dielectric lens. In this paper, a sub-THz Acrylonitrile Butadiene Styrene (ABS) plastic lens is proposed. Using additive manufacturing, low-cost and fast prototyping of the lens was achieved. A gain improvement ranging from 12 dB to 19 dB in the broadside direction is measured from 200 GHz to 300 GHz which demonstrates great potential for sub-THz applications.
