Two-Dimensional Glide-Symmetric Dielectric Structures for Planar Graded-Index Lens Antennas

Abstract

In this letter, we propose and study a 2-D glide-symmetric dielectric periodic structure. We demonstrate that glide symmetry broadens the bandwidth of operation and achieves lower effective refractive indices when compared to non-glide configurations. These two properties are beneficial for producing graded-index lens antennas. To demonstrate the potential of the proposed unit cell, we designed a Luneburg lens operating in the K- and K <inline-formula xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink"><tex-math notation="LaTeX">$_\text {a}\!$</tex-math></inline-formula> -bands. The lens was manufactured with conventional additive manufacturing and it has a potential use for future wireless communications given its low-cost and low-profile.