Metamaterial Radome Composed of
Negative Refractive Index Lens for
Mobile Base Station Antennas
Student: Ahmad Nur Firdaus Bin Hashim
Supervisor: Prof. Dr. Yoshihide Yamada
Introduction
In the mobile base station antenna, linear array
antennas are employed for achieving the required
gain. Typical radiation element is a dipole antenna
satisfying wide operational bandwidth. In addition, the
array elements are divided as sub-array to reduce the
feeding cable. Recently, dual and triple frequency
band needs to be covered in the base station
antenna. As a result, large spaces for many feeding
cables are required even if the multi-frequency
antenna can be developed.
In recent years, a negative refractive index (NRI)
metamaterials have been widely investigated in
microwave, millimeter wave, and optical region. The
NRI lens has been increased in application to
subwavelength focusing, transformation
electromagnetic, and a concave lens. In addition, a
lens antenna for wide angle beam scanning has been
proposed. In the design and measurement of this lens
antenna, the dielectric resonator-based metamaterial
structure in the cut-off background was employed.
The size of the lens antenna can miniaturized by
obtaining the short focal length in the NRI lens. The
lens shapes are designed by the lens shaping method
in the case of conventional dielectric material.
Project Objectives
In the conventional base station antenna, linear array
antenna is divided as sub-array. Each sub-array
consists of several radiation elements. For example,
16 array elements are composed of 4 sub-arrays
which have 4 radiation elements. The feeding cable
is connected to each sub-array. Therefore, the large
spaces for the feeding cable should be maintained for
the multi-frequency operational band.
Typical lens shape made by the natural dielectric
material is convex shape. If the lens effect is added to
the radome, the diameter of the base station antenna
becomes thick. On the other hand, the short focal
length can be designed in the NRI lens due to its
negative refraction. Therefore, the metamaterial
radome can obtain the pattern shaping function while
keeping the size.
Methodologies
In lens shaping, the fundamental lens shaping
method is employed by using lens shaping equations
in three different conditions which are refraction low
on the lens inner surface condition, refraction on the
lens outer surface condition, and energy conservation
low condition. These differential equations are solved
by MATLAB software. In order to ensure the accuracy
of the program, a hyperbolic contour lens is designed.
In radome designing, a dipole antenna having length
of approximately one wavelength is used to produce
the radiation pattern. There are several important
parameters in radome designing such as, refractive
index of the lens, maximum angle illuminating the
lens, peak direction of the radiation pattern, beam
sharpness of the feed pattern, and edge level of the
aperture distribution.
Experimental Prediction
In the base station application, radome diameter
should be expected to be small. In order to reduce the
radome diameter, effects of main parameters in
radome designing are manipulated. In addition, other
parameters also being studied so that a thin and small
diameter radome can be achieved.
Reference
[1] T. Kenjo & S. Nagamori, Pemanent Magnet and
Brushless DC motor, Clarendon Press, Oxford, 2005.