Paraffin wax-based dielectric lens for metamaterial measurement in the S-band

摘要

In this study, the paraffin wax is used in a moulding process to fabricate two dielectric lenses with the diameter of 24 inches for metamaterial measurement in the S-band (1–4 GHz) using the free-space method. The moulding process guarantees the lower cost and ease of implementation compared to the conventional machining procedure. To verify the lens performance, the two fabricated samples are used to measure the -parameters of a well-known spiral metamaterial unit cell. In this process, a three-dimensional prototype of the unit cell is fabricated and placed between two standard horn antennas facing each other, and the dielectric lenses are used in front of the each horn antenna to ensure that the metamaterial prototype is correctly illuminated by the incident wave. This experiment provides a very good agreement with the simulation and confirms that the lens structure works properly.