Design of a Wideband Millimeter Wave Micromachined Rotman Lens

Design, fabrication, and performance of a micromachined millimeter wave Rotman lens are presented. To achieve wide instantaneous bandwidth with ±30° scan range, five different transmission lines with carefully designed transitions are monolithically integrated within the same process. Theoretical bandwidth of over 70 GHz is verified with a narrower bandwidth W-band measurements of VSWR (<;2.75:1), and 65-115 GHz measurements of realized gain (5-11 dBi), 3 dB beamwidth (20°-40°), and beam-peak locations in E-plane. Demonstrated results indicate that wideband Rotman lenses can now be engineered for emerging millimeter and submillimeter wave applications.

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