Fully-Metallic Additively Manufactured Monolithic Double-Ridged Waveguide Rotman Lens in the K/K-a-Band

This paper reports on the design and experimental validation of a fully-metallic doubleridged waveguide 10 x 10 Rotman lens additively manufactured as a single part. The wide band operation of this quasi-optical beamformer enables us to cover the uplink and downlink frequencies allocated to satellite communications in the K/K-a-band, from 17.3GHz to 30 GHz. The feeding port design was adjusted to enable vertical printing, thus minimizing the use of supporting structures. A prototype was manufactured and tested. The reported results indicate losses in the range of 0.5 dB in the lower-frequency band and 0.8 dB in the upper-frequency band, including the waveguide transitions added for test purposes. The measured reflection and coupling coefficients remain below 11.5 dB over the operating band. The standard deviation of the residual phase error across the array ports is below 5 degrees in simulation and below 10 degrees in measurements. Array factors synthesized using the scattering parameters confirm the good stability of the beamforming functionality over the wide frequency band analyzed. This monolithic design is a promising step toward more integrated antenna systems, such as a compact dual-stack configuration for planar array design.

Automated summary

This paper presents the design and experimental validation of a fully-metallic doubleridged waveguide 10 x 10 Rotman lens that is additively manufactured as a single part. The wide band operation of this beamformer allows for coverage of the uplink and downlink frequencies allocated to satellite communications in the K/K-a-band. The prototype shows low losses and good stability in reflection and coupling coefficients, making it a promising step towards integrated antenna systems.