Abstract
Millimeter wave lens antennas will be essential for future wireless access. Conventionally, they increase the gain in the boresight direction only. In this paper, cascaded Fresnel zone plate lenses are combined with a phased array to increase the gain at wide steering angles of ±52°. The side lenses are tilted to align with the maximum steering angle, and cascaded to increase the focusing gain. The inner lenses increase the gain by 2.45 dB at boresight, and by 3.19 dB at the maximum steering angle. When the side lenses are repositioned, the simulated focusing gain increases to 4.69 dB. Asymmetric amplitude distributions are proposed to prevent the main lobe from splitting. An 8-dement 7-lens prototype operating at 28 GHz achieved a gain from 12.96 dBi to 15.35 dBi with a bandwidth of at least 1.3 GHz for all measured beam directions. The maximum measured azimuthal beamwidth was 27°. A design procedure and a theoretical analysis of diffraction through the lenses are provided. By increasing the SNR, this beamfonning antenna could improve the coverage of 3-sector 5G microcell base stations, and support gigabit wireless links for vehicular, rail, and satellite communications.