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dielectricLens

Create dielectric lens

Since R2024a

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    Description

    The default dielectricLens object creates a Teflon dielectric lens of radius 15 mm. Use this object to set the Element property of the planeWaveExcitation object. Further, set the SolverType property of the planeWaveExcitation object to "FMM". This combination allows you to analyze the dielectric lens using the object functions of the planeWaveExcitation object. Currently, only pattern function is supported for this combination.

    Dielectric lenses are a type of lens antenna that uses the refraction of electromagnetic waves to modify the radiation pattern of a primary feed. They are often used in millimeter- and sub-millimeter-wave applications due to their compact size and flexible design. Dielectric lenses can have different shapes and refractive index profiles, depending on the desired output radiation pattern. They can be either homogeneous (uniform refractive index) or non-homogeneous (nonuniform refractive index). Some common examples of dielectric lenses are Luneburg lens, Maxwell's fish-eye lens, and delay lens.

    Dielectric lenses are made of materials with high dielectric constants, such as polystyrene, polyethylene, and plexiglass. They can be integrated with various types of feeds, such as horn antennas, microstrip antennas, and waveguide antennas. They are useful for applications such as imaging, broadband communications, and automotive radar.

    Creation

    Syntax

    d = dielectricLens
    d = dielectricLens(Name=Value)

    Description

    d = dielectricLens creates a hemispherical Teflon dielectric lens of radius 0.015 m.

    d = dielectricLens(Name=Value) sets properties using one or more name-value arguments. Name is the property name and Value is the corresponding value. You can specify several name-value arguments in any order as Name1=Value1,...,NameN=ValueN. Properties that you do not specify, retain their default values.

    example

    Properties

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    Radius of the hemispherical dielectric lens in meters, specified as a positive scalar.

    Example: 1.25

    Data Types: double

    Type of dielectric material used as a substrate, specified as a dielectric object. The default substrate material is Teflon. You can choose any material from the DielectricCatalog or use your own dielectric material. For more information on dielectric substrate meshing, see Meshing.

    Example: dielectric("FR4")

    Tilt angle of the antenna in degrees, specified as a scalar or vector. For more information, see Rotate Antennas and Arrays.

    Example: 90

    Example: Tilt=[90 90],TiltAxis=[0 1 0;0 1 1] tilts the antenna at 90 degrees about the two axes defined by the vectors.

    Data Types: double

    Tilt axis of the antenna, specified as one of these values:

    • Three-element vector of Cartesian coordinates in meters. In this case, each coordinate in the vector starts at the origin and lies along the specified points on the x-, y-, and z-axes.

    • Two points in space, specified as a 2-by-3 matrix corresponding to two three-element vectors of Cartesian coordinates. In this case, the antenna rotates around the line joining the two points.

    • "x", "y", or "z" to describe a rotation about the x-, y-, or z-axis, respectively.

    For more information, see Rotate Antennas and Arrays.

    Example: [0 1 0]

    Example: [0 0 0;0 1 0]

    Example: "Z"

    Data Types: double | string

    Object Functions

    meshMesh properties of metal, dielectric antenna, or array structure
    showDisplay antenna, array structures, shapes, or platform
    stlwriteWrite mesh information to STL file

    Examples

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    Open Live Script

    This example shows how to visualize the mesh of a dielectric lens.

    Create Polystyrene Dielectric Lens

    Define a polystyrene dielectric substrate. Create a dielectric lens of radius 60mm and polystyrene substrate.

    sub = dielectric("Polystyrene");
dl = dielectricLens(Radius=0.06,Substrate=sub);

    Mesh Dielectric Lens

    Create a plane wave excitation environment and assign the dielectric lens as its element. Mesh the structure with a maximum edge length of 10mm.

    Visualize the mesh.

    pw = planeWaveExcitation(Element=dl,SolverType="FMM");
figure
mesh(pw,MaxEdgeLength=0.01)

    Figure contains an axes object and an object of type uicontrol. The axes object with title Dielectric volume, xlabel x (m), ylabel y (m) contains an object of type patch.

    References

    [1] Fernandes, C.A., Lima, E.B., Costa, J.R. (2016). Dielectric Lens Antennas. In: Chen, Z., Liu, D., Nakano, H., Qing, X., Zwick, T. (eds) Handbook of Antenna Technologies. Springer, Singapore.

    [2] Santos, R. A., G. L. Fre, F. B. Mejia, and D. H. Spadoti. Dual Millimeter Wave Reconfigurable Dielectric Lens Antenna. In 2018 International Conference on Electromagnetics in Advanced Applications (ICEAA), 489–92. Cartagena des Indias: IEEE, 2018. https://doi.org/10.1109/ICEAA.2018.8520440.

    Version History

    Introduced in R2024a

    See Also

    Objects

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