Modeling the Performance Impact of Anisotropic Unit Cells Used in Additively Manufactured Luneburg Lenses

Authors

  • Brian LaRocca Department of the Army, Aberdeen Proving Ground, Aberdeen, MD 21005, USA
  • Mark Mirotznik Electrical Engineering Department, University of Delaware, Newark, DE 19716, USA

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.13052/2022.ACES.J.370106

Keywords:

Anisotropic lens, Finite Element Analysis, Luneburg lens, 3D printing

Abstract

Additively manufactured graded index lenses, such as the Luneburg lens, often result in some degree of uniaxial anisotropy in the effective permittivity distribution. A uniaxially anisotropic Luneburg lens modifies the polarization state of an incident electromagnetic field, thus giving rise to a polarization mismatch at the receiving antenna. Using 3D finite element simulation, the lens focal point polarization is analyzed and a model that fits the simulation data is created. The model allows prediction of polarization mismatch loss given any incident field and any receiving antenna polarization without resorting to further time-consumingsimulations.

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Author Biographies

Brian LaRocca, Department of the Army, Aberdeen Proving Ground, Aberdeen, MD 21005, USA

Brian F. LaRocca received the B.S.E.E. and M.S.E.E. degrees from the New Jersey Institute of Technology, Newark, NJ, USA in 1985 and 2000 respectively. He is currently working toward the Ph.D. degree in electrical engineering with the University of Delaware, Newark, DE, USA.

From 1985 to 1996, he worked in industry, from 1996 to 2004 as a government contractor, and from 2004 to present as a civilian engineer with the Department of the Army, Ft. Monmouth, NJ, USA and Aberdeen Proving Ground, MD, USA.

Mark Mirotznik, Electrical Engineering Department, University of Delaware, Newark, DE 19716, USA

Mark S. Mirotznik (Senior Member, IEEE) received the B.S.E.E. degree from Bradley University, Peoria, IL, USA, in 1988, and the M.S.E.E. and the Ph.D. degrees from the University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, PA, USA, in 1991 and 1992, respectively.

From 1992 to 2009, he was a Faculty Member with the Department of Electrical Engineering,The Catholic University of America, Washington, DC, USA. Since 2009, he has been a Professor and an Associate Chair for Undergraduate Programs with the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, University of Delaware, Newark, DE, USA. He holds the position of Senior Research Engineer with the Naval Surface Warfare Center, Carderock Division. His current research interests include applied electromagnetics and photonics, computational electromagnetics, multifunctional engineered materials, and additive manufacturing.

References

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Published

2022-01-31

How to Cite

[1]
B. LaRocca and M. Mirotznik, “Modeling the Performance Impact of Anisotropic Unit Cells Used in Additively Manufactured Luneburg Lenses”, ACES Journal, vol. 37, no. 1, pp. 50–57, Jan. 2022.

Issue

2022: Vol 37 Iss 1

Section

General Submission

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