Inkbit unveils 3D-printed Luneburg lenses for mmWave applications

Inkbit, a Massachusetts-based additive manufacturing company, has introduced gradient-index (GRIN) Luneburg lenses produced via its Vision-Controlled Jetting (VCJ) platform, developed in partnership with the University of Delaware. The 100 mm diameter lenses, presented at the IEEE IMS symposium in June 2026, operate across Ka-, U-, and W-bands up to 100 GHz, achieving a realized gain above 34 dBi and an aperture exceeding 30 wavelengths. The lenses are printed in a Cyclic Olefin Thermoset (COT) resin with a loss tangent of 0.0018 at 100 GHz, which Inkbit claims is the lowest dielectric loss among additively manufacturable resins. The findings were published in the SPIE journal Optical Engineering.

This development addresses a long-standing manufacturing challenge: Luneburg lenses require a continuous permittivity gradient that conventional stacked-shell approaches cannot achieve without signal loss and geometric constraints. Inkbit's VCJ platform, which uses real-time computer vision to correct material deposition, enables subwavelength lattice structures with tight tolerances that earlier AM methods could not reach at these electrical sizes and frequencies. The technology targets mmWave telecommunications, aerospace radar, and defense systems where passive beamforming offers weight and power advantages over active antenna arrays. This positions Inkbit in a niche intersection of advanced materials science and high-frequency RF engineering, competing indirectly with conventional dielectric lens manufacturers and early-stage AM RF component efforts from firms like Optisys and Swissto12, though Inkbit's material-specific approach and VCJ process represent a distinct process frontier.

For Inkbit, the practical next step is moving from academic publication and conference demonstration to qualified production for defense and telecom integrators. The company must demonstrate repeatable dielectric performance across batches and secure customer qualification cycles that typically run 12–24 months in RF and aerospace segments. The COT resin's low loss at 100 GHz is a credible technical differentiator, but adoption will depend on whether Inkbit can embed this material and process into existing antenna design workflows and supply chains.