%0 Journal Article
%T A Review on the Development of Rotman Lens Antenna
%A Shruti Vashist
%A M. K. Soni
%A P. K. Singhal
%J Chinese Journal of Engineering
%D 2014
%R 10.1155/2014/385385
%X Rotman lenses are the beguiling devices used by the beamforming networks (BFNs). These lenses are generally used in the radar surveillance systems to see targets in multiple directions due to its multibeam capability without physically moving the antenna system. Now a days these lenses are being integrated into many radars and electronic warfare systems around the world. The antenna should be capable of producing multiple beams which can be steered without changing the orientation of the antenna. Microwave lenses are the one who support low-phase error, wideband, and wide-angle scanning. They are the true time delay (TTD) devices producing frequency independent beam steering. The emerging printed lenses in recent years have facilitated the advancement of designing high performance but low-profile, light-weight, and small-size and networks (BFNs). This paper will review and analyze various design concepts used over the years to improve the scanning capability of the lens developed by various researchers. 1. Introduction To appreciate the significance of the most popular constrained lens architecture, the Rotman lens antenna, it is necessary to provide a review of the constrained lens development. To fully understand the concept of these complicated and complex lenses, the basic concept of microwave beamforming network must be dealt with in detail. The Rotman lens antenna provides ideal performance for applications such as for satellite based direct radiating arrays, remote-piloted vehicles, collision-avoidance radars, ultra-wideband communications systems, and many more [1, 2]. Constrained lens arrays are special groups of beamforming networks. They share some similarities with dielectric lenses and reflector antennas on one hand and with antenna arrays on the other. Their function is to form beams in multiple directions which correspond to the position of the feed antennas at the focal surface. The name constrained comes from the fact that a wave incident on one face of the array does not necessarily obey Snell¡¯s law when passing through the lens array [1]. It is instead constrained to follow the transmission line paths. Unlike dielectric lenses or reflector antennas, lens arrays do their collimation (transmission) and focusing (reception) discretely, using antenna arrays [2]. The frequency independent beam pointing angle characteristics of the lens due to its time delay nature makes it ideal for many broadband width electronics warfare. The paper is organized as follows. Section 2 represents various beamforming techniques and its development. Section 3
%U http://www.hindawi.com/journals/cje/2014/385385/