Fully Dielectric Rod Antenna Arrays with Integrated Power Divider

This paper presents an overview of fully dielectric antenna arrays with integrated dielectric power dividers developed at Technische Universität Darmstadt as an extension of previous work. The power dividers are based on the principle of multimode interference and offer one- and two dimensional power division in a single step,which allows the realization of small and lightweight devices. In order to prove the concept, 1 ×4 and 4× 4 fully dielectric antenna arrays with integrated power dividers milled from Rexolite are designed, realized and characterized, operating between 90 GHz and 105 GHz. To assess miniaturization and beamsteering capabilities, three 1 × 4 arrays composed of different materials, Rexolite, Preperm L300 and Preperm L440, are compared regarding gain, size,weight and element spacing. Depending on array size and material, gain is between 12.5 dBi and 22 dBi, accompanied with sidelobe levels below –7.5. All demonstrators are realized by milling, but the designs show the potential to be 3D printed or injection molded for large scale manufacturing.