阅读说明：本技术 一种具备宽扫描角度的平面龙伯透镜天线 (Planar luneberg lens antenna with wide scanning angle ) 是由 郑依璇 郑少勇 杨楠 于 2021-06-03 设计创作，主要内容包括：本发明公开了一种具备宽扫描角度的平面龙伯透镜天线,包括平面龙伯透镜、第一金属片、第二金属片和馈源,第一金属片和第二金属片分别位于平面龙伯透镜的两面,馈源位于平面龙伯透镜的外沿,馈源的前端对准平面龙伯透镜的中心。本发明使用的平面龙伯透镜整体呈较薄的平面结构,结构简单,空间占用小,可以将从馈源发出的球面波折射形成等相平面波,从而使得波束的增益和方向性得到大幅提升,能够实现高增益、窄波束、低旁瓣；通过切换馈源,可实现宽范围内的多波束扫描；通过在平面龙伯透镜上下表面各加上一层金属片,有助于约束电磁波在平面龙伯透镜内向前传播,完全穿过整个透镜结构,提高天线增益。本发明广泛应用于无线通信技术领域。(The invention discloses a planar luneberg lens antenna with a wide scanning angle, which comprises a planar luneberg lens, a first metal sheet, a second metal sheet and a feed source, wherein the first metal sheet and the second metal sheet are respectively positioned on two sides of the planar luneberg lens, the feed source is positioned on the outer edge of the planar luneberg lens, and the front end of the feed source is aligned to the center of the planar luneberg lens. The plane luneberg lens used by the invention has a thin plane structure as a whole, has a simple structure and small space occupation, can refract spherical waves emitted from the feed source to form isophase plane waves, thereby greatly improving the gain and the directivity of beams and realizing high gain, narrow beams and low sidelobes; by switching the feed source, multi-beam scanning in a wide range can be realized; the upper surface and the lower surface of the plane Luneberg lens are respectively provided with a layer of metal sheet, so that the electromagnetic waves are restrained from being transmitted forwards in the plane Luneberg lens and completely penetrate through the whole lens structure, and the antenna gain is improved. The invention is widely applied to the technical field of wireless communication.)

1. A planar Luneberg lens antenna with a wide scanning angle, comprising:

a planar luneberg lens; the planar luneberg lens comprises an inner-layer cylinder and a plurality of outer-layer circular rings, wherein the outer-layer circular rings are sequentially nested on the periphery of the inner-layer cylinder layer by layer, the radius of the inner-layer cylinder is larger than the ring width of each outer-layer circular ring, and the ring width of each outer-layer circular ring is gradually reduced from inside to outside;

a first metal sheet and a second metal sheet; the first metal sheet and the second metal sheet are circular with semicircular edges and the same size, the first metal sheet is located on one surface of the plane luneberg lens, the second metal sheet is located on the other surface of the plane luneberg lens, the first metal sheet and the second metal sheet are stacked together at the concentric position of the plane luneberg lens, and the first metal sheet and the second metal sheet are overlapped in the direction perpendicular to the plane luneberg lens;

at least one feed source; each feed source is positioned on one side of the outer edge of the plane luneberg lens, which is opposite to the semicircular edge of the first metal sheet or the second metal sheet, and the front end of each feed source is aligned to the center of the plane luneberg lens.

2. The planar luneberg lens antenna with wide scanning angle as claimed in claim 1, wherein the semicircular edges of the first and second metal plates are each provided with a chamfered portion, and the chamfered portion forms an opening between the semicircular edges of the first and second metal plates, the opening being opened from the inside to the edge.

3. The planar luneberg lens antenna with a wide scan angle as claimed in claim 1, wherein when the planar luneberg lens antenna comprises a plurality of the feeding sources, the feeding sources are uniformly distributed along the outer edge of the planar luneberg lens, and the feeding sources are symmetrically distributed along the symmetry axis of the first metal plate and the second metal plate.

4. The planar luneberg lens antenna with a wide scanning angle of claim 1, wherein the feed source comprises a first dielectric substrate and two second dielectric substrates, a microstrip line and a tapered patch cord are disposed on an upper surface of the first dielectric substrate, a metal ground layer is disposed on a lower surface of the first dielectric substrate, and the two second dielectric substrates are respectively attached to the upper surface and the lower surface of the first dielectric substrate.

5. The planar luneberg lens antenna with a wide scanning angle as claimed in claim 4, wherein the first dielectric substrate has a substrate integrated waveguide formed by a plurality of metal vias thereon, and the substrate integrated waveguide is connected to the microstrip line through the tapered patch cord.

6. The planar luneberg lens antenna with wide scanning angle as claimed in claim 4 or 5, wherein the second dielectric substrate has a dipole pair and a reflector wall formed by a plurality of metal vias.

7. The planar luneberg lens antenna with wide scanning angle of claim 4 or 5, wherein the first dielectric substrate further has an SMA contact mounted thereon, and the SMA contact is connected to the microstrip line.

8. The planar luneberg lens antenna with a wide scan angle of claim 1, wherein the first dielectric substrate and the second dielectric substrate are both Rogers 5880.

9. The planar luneberg lens antenna with a wide scanning angle as claimed in claim 1, wherein air gaps are formed between the inner cylinder and the adjacent outer rings and between the adjacent outer rings, and the width of each air gap gradually increases from inside to outside; the inner layer cylinder is fixedly connected with the outer layer circular rings through connecting shafts.

10. The planar luneberg lens antenna with wide scanning angle of claim 9, wherein the inner cylinder, the outer rings and the connecting shaft are all made of ABS, and the first metal plate and the second metal plate are made of aluminum alloy.

Technical Field

The invention relates to the technical field of wireless communication, in particular to a planar luneberg lens antenna with a wide scanning angle.

Background

With the rapid development of communication technology, high-performance multi-beam antennas are becoming research hotspots. The multi-beam antenna can be widely applied to the fields of wireless communication, microwave remote sensing, automobile collision avoidance and the like, the traditional multi-beam antenna generally adopts a non-spherical lens antenna and a parabolic antenna which are fed by a plurality of feed sources, but due to the limitation of the structure of the antenna, the beam coverage is smaller and the difference between beams is larger.

Disclosure of Invention

In view of at least one of the above problems, an object of the present invention is to provide a planar luneberg lens antenna with a wide scanning angle, comprising:

a planar luneberg lens; the planar luneberg lens comprises an inner-layer cylinder and a plurality of outer-layer circular rings, wherein the outer-layer circular rings are sequentially nested on the periphery of the inner-layer cylinder layer by layer, the radius of the inner-layer cylinder is larger than the ring width of each outer-layer circular ring, and the ring width of each outer-layer circular ring is gradually reduced from inside to outside;

a first metal sheet and a second metal sheet; the first metal sheet and the second metal sheet are circular with semicircular edges and the same size, the first metal sheet is located on one surface of the plane luneberg lens, the second metal sheet is located on the other surface of the plane luneberg lens, the first metal sheet and the second metal sheet are stacked together at the concentric position of the plane luneberg lens, and the first metal sheet and the second metal sheet are overlapped in the direction perpendicular to the plane luneberg lens;

at least one feed source; each feed source is positioned on one side of the outer edge of the plane luneberg lens, which is opposite to the semicircular edge of the first metal sheet or the second metal sheet, and the front end of each feed source is aligned to the center of the plane luneberg lens.

Further, the semicircular edges of the first metal sheet and the second metal sheet are provided with beveled parts, and the beveled parts enable openings which are opened from the inside to the edges to be formed between the semicircular edges of the first metal sheet and the second metal sheet.

Further, when the planar luneberg lens comprises a plurality of the feed sources, the feed sources are uniformly distributed along the outer edge of the planar luneberg lens, and the feed sources are symmetrically distributed according to the symmetry axis of the first metal sheet and the second metal sheet.

Furthermore, the feed source comprises a first medium substrate and two second medium substrates, a microstrip line and a conical patch cord are arranged on the upper surface of the first medium substrate, a metal ground layer is arranged on the lower surface of the first medium substrate, and the two second medium substrates are attached to the upper surface and the lower surface of the first medium substrate respectively.

Furthermore, a substrate integrated waveguide formed by a plurality of metal via holes is arranged on the first dielectric substrate, and the substrate integrated waveguide is connected with the microstrip line through the tapered patch cord.

Furthermore, the second dielectric substrate is provided with a dipole pair and a reflection wall which are formed by a plurality of metal through holes.

Further, the first dielectric substrate is further provided with an SMA connector, and the SMA connector is connected with the microstrip line.

Furthermore, the first dielectric substrate and the second dielectric substrate are both made of Rogers5880 materials.

Further, air gaps are formed between the inner-layer cylinder and the adjacent outer-layer circular rings and between the adjacent outer-layer circular rings, and the width of each air gap is gradually increased from inside to outside; the inner layer cylinder is fixedly connected with the outer layer circular rings through connecting shafts.

Further, the inner cylinder, the outer rings and the connecting shaft are all made of ABS materials, and the first metal sheet and the second metal sheet are made of aluminum alloy materials.

The invention has the beneficial effects that: the planar luneberg lens antenna in the embodiment uses the planar luneberg lens, the planar luneberg lens is of a thin planar structure integrally, the defects that the volume is large and the fixing is difficult when a spherical luneberg lens is adopted are overcome, the structure is simple, and the occupied space is small; the planar luneberg lens can refract spherical waves emitted from the feed source to form isophase planar waves, so that the gain and the directivity of the wave beam are greatly improved, and high gain, narrow wave beam and low side lobe can be realized; by arranging a plurality of feed sources on the outer edge of the plane Luneberg lens and switching the feed sources, multi-beam scanning in a wide range can be realized; the metal sheets are respectively added on the upper surface and the lower surface of the plane Luneberg lens, so that the electromagnetic waves are restrained from being transmitted forwards in the plane Luneberg lens and completely penetrate through the whole lens structure, the electromagnetic waves are reduced from being transmitted along the direction vertical to the plane of the plane Luneberg lens, and the antenna gain is improved.

Drawings

FIG. 1 is a top view of a planar Luneberg lens antenna according to an embodiment;

FIG. 2 is a side view of a planar Luneberg lens antenna according to an embodiment;

FIG. 3 is a diagram illustrating a positional relationship between multiple feeds in an embodiment;

FIG. 4 is a block diagram of a feed in an embodiment;

FIG. 5 is a field distribution diagram simulated in the simulation of a planar luneberg lens antenna according to an embodiment;

FIG. 6 is a diagram of the return loss-operating frequency simulation and test results for a planar luneberg lens antenna in an embodiment;

FIG. 7 is a graph of simulated and measured gain results for a planar Luneberg lens antenna in an example;

FIG. 8 shows the simulated radiation pattern and the measured radiation pattern of the planar Luneberg lens antenna at 35GHz and theta 90deg in the example;

FIG. 9 is a diagram of partial port isolation simulation results in an embodiment;

FIG. 10 is a diagram illustrating partial port isolation measurement results in an embodiment;

fig. 11 is a multibeam scanning radiation pattern at 35GHz, theta 90 deg. in an example.

Detailed Description

In this embodiment, fig. 1 is a top view of a planar luneberg lens antenna, and fig. 2 is a side view of the planar luneberg lens antenna, where the planar luneberg lens antenna includes a planar luneberg lens, a first metal sheet, a second metal sheet, and at least one feed source. Referring to fig. 2, the cross section of the planar luneberg lens is circular, the first metal sheet and the second metal sheet are circular with semicircular edges and the same size, and the radius of the circular part of the first metal sheet and the radius of the circular part of the second metal sheet are slightly larger than the outer diameter of the planar luneberg lens, so that the planar luneberg lens can be covered by the first metal sheet and the second metal sheet. Referring to fig. 2, the first metal sheet is located on one side of the planar luneberg lens, and the second metal sheet is located on the other side of the planar luneberg lens. The first metal sheet and the second metal sheet are overlapped in a direction perpendicular to the planar luneberg lens, the luneberg lens is sandwiched between the first metal sheet and the second metal sheet, and the luneberg lens is bonded to the first metal sheet and the second metal sheet by an adhesive. In this embodiment, the first metal sheet and the second metal sheet are both made of an aluminum alloy material with a thickness of 5 mm.

Referring to fig. 1, the planar luneberg lens includes an inner cylinder and a plurality of outer rings, each outer ring is sequentially nested on the periphery of the inner cylinder layer by layer, that is, the inner diameter of each outer ring is gradually increased, one outer ring is nested on the periphery of the inner cylinder, one outer ring is nested on the periphery of the outer ring, and so on. Air gaps are reserved between the inner-layer cylinder and the outer-layer circular rings and between the adjacent outer-layer circular rings, and the inner-layer cylinder is connected with the outer-layer circular rings through connecting shafts. In this embodiment, referring to fig. 1, a total of 1 inner cylinder and 9 outer rings are provided.

In this embodiment, connect through 3 connecting axles between inlayer cylinder and each outer ring, the contained angle between each connecting axle is 120, the connecting axle is the cylinder that the diameter is 2mm, and inlayer cylinder, outer ring and connecting axle all use ABS dielectric material to make, consequently can use 3D to print or mode such as integrated into one piece makes plane luneberg lens, also can make parts such as inlayer cylinder, outer ring and connecting axle alone, after the relevant position processing of inlayer cylinder, outer ring supplies connecting axle to connect or the connection position that passes, assemble inlayer cylinder, outer ring and connecting axle together.

Referring to fig. 1, the radius of the inner cylinder is greater than the width of each outer ring, and the width of each outer ring gradually decreases from inside to outside, that is, when viewed from the radial direction of the planar luneberg lens, the thickness of the inner cylinder located at the innermost layer is the largest, and the thickness of the outer ring decreases toward the outside. Correspondingly, the further outward the thickness of the air gap is.

Fig. 1 and 2 show the case of only one feed. In this embodiment, a plurality of feed sources may be provided for the planar luneberg lens antenna, where the feed sources may also be referred to as DPE-ME-dipole feed sources. Referring to fig. 3, a plurality of feed sources are processed on the same dielectric substrate to be integrated, and the inner diameter of the dielectric substrate is matched with the outer diameter of the metal sheet, so that the inner edge of the dielectric substrate can surround the outer edge of the metal sheet. The front end of each feed source is aligned to the center of the plane Luneberg lens, namely the center of a circle where each outer layer ring in the plane Luneberg lens is located.

Referring to fig. 3, the feed sources are uniformly distributed on the semicircle of the outer edge of the plane luneberg lens, and the distribution of the feed sources is axisymmetric, the symmetry axis coincides with the symmetry axis of the first metal sheet and the second metal sheet, that is, if there are n feed sources, the angle difference between the radial directions of two adjacent feed sources isReferring to fig. 3, there are 9 feed sources, and the angle difference between the radial directions of two adjacent feed sources is 20 °.

In this embodiment, each feed source has a structure as shown in fig. 4, and includes a first dielectric substrate and two second dielectric substrates, where the first dielectric substrate and the second dielectric substrate are both made of Rogers5880 material, dielectric constants of the first dielectric substrate and the second dielectric substrate are both 2.2, a thickness of the first dielectric substrate is 0.508mm, and thicknesses of the two second dielectric substrates are both 1.575 mm. The upper surface of the first medium substrate is provided with a microstrip line and a conical patch cord, the lower surface of the first medium substrate is provided with a metal ground layer, and the two layers of second medium substrates are respectively attached to the upper surface and the lower surface of the first medium substrate. The characteristic impedance of the microstrip line may be 50 ohms.

Referring to fig. 4, a substrate integrated waveguide formed by a plurality of metal via holes is disposed on the first dielectric substrate, and the substrate integrated waveguide is connected to the microstrip line through a tapered patch cord. The second dielectric substrate is provided with a dipole pair and a reflection wall which are formed by a plurality of metal through holes.

Referring to fig. 3, the first dielectric substrate and the second dielectric substrate are respectively provided with first through holes with different sizes and corresponding positions. When the first dielectric substrate and the second dielectric substrate are overlapped, fasteners such as plastic screws can be installed in the first through holes, and the plastic screws are used for connecting and fixing the first dielectric substrate and the second dielectric substrate, so that the first dielectric substrate and the second dielectric substrate form a whole body without internal relative movement. In addition, an independent first through hole is formed in the first medium substrate and used for being connected with the SMA connector, and the SMA connector is connected with the microstrip line. The feed source can be connected with an external device through the SMA connector.

Referring to fig. 2, the first metal sheet and the second metal sheet are each provided with a chamfered portion at an edge of one side of the first metal sheet and the second metal sheet facing the planar luneberg lens. The chamfered portion may be a metal sheet having a certain thickness, and the first metal sheet may have upper and lower surfaces with a plane perpendicular to the upper and lower surfaces, and when the chamfered portion is formed, an inclined surface having a certain angle with the upper and lower surfaces is formed between the upper and lower surfaces of the sheet, and the chamfered portion may be understood as a portion where the inclined surface is located. Referring to fig. 2, the chamfered portion forms an opening between the first metal sheet and the second metal sheet that opens from the inside to the edge through which the outer edge of the planar luneberg lens can be seen. The front end of the feed source can be one end where the dipole pair is located, the front end of the feed source is aligned to the center of the plane luneberg lens, the front end of the feed source can be one end where the dipole pair in the feed source is located, the front end of the feed source faces the center of the plane luneberg lens, and the straight line where the microstrip line is located in fig. 4 passes through the center of the plane luneberg lens.

The principle of the planar luneberg lens antenna in this embodiment includes:

(1) spherical waves emitted from the feed source are refracted by the luneberg lens and then form isophase plane waves on the output aperture surface, so that the gain and the directivity of the wave beam are greatly improved, and high gain, narrow wave beam and low side lobe can be realized;

(2) the luneberg lens comprises a plurality of dielectric layers, the thickness of the luneberg lens is gradually reduced from the center to the edge, the centremost layer is a cylinder, the thickness of the luneberg lens is the thickest, nine layers of cylindrical annular shell layers are arranged outside the luneberg lens, the thickness of the outermost layer is the thinnest, and a certain air gap is formed between every two layers, so that the luneberg lens with a plane structure is realized, the whole luneberg lens is of a thinner plane structure, the defects that the volume is large and the fixing is difficult when a spherical luneberg lens is adopted are overcome, the luneberg lens is simple in structure, and the occupied space is small;

(3) the whole luneberg lens can be manufactured by using one medium material, so that the design complexity and the manufacturing difficulty of the lens are reduced, for example, the luneberg lens is easy to manufacture by using a 3D printing process and other integrated forming processes, is easy to manufacture by using an assembly and other low-cost processes, and has more practical value;

(4) the planar luneberg lens is equivalent to a layer cut from the spherical luneberg lens along the upper part and the lower part of an equatorial plane at a certain distance, and each point on the spherical surface of the spherical luneberg lens is a focus, so that each point on the side wall of the planar luneberg lens is a focus, and an incident electromagnetic wave with a specific wavelength can be converged to the focus on the side wall of the lens, and vice versa, so that the position of each feed source can obtain the same beam radiation result, and by switching different feed sources to enter a working state, high-efficiency and wide-angle multi-beam scanning can be realized, for example, nine feed sources which are respectively arranged on the focus on the surface of the lens in the embodiment and are respectively spaced by 20 degrees are arranged on the focus on the surface of the lens, and by switching the feed sources, multi-beam scanning within the range of +/-90 degrees can be realized;

(5) the upper surface and the lower surface of the plane Luneberg lens are respectively provided with a layer of metal sheet, so that the electromagnetic waves are restrained from being transmitted forwards in the plane Luneberg lens and completely penetrate through the whole lens structure, the electromagnetic waves are reduced from being transmitted along the direction vertical to the plane of the plane Luneberg lens, and the antenna gain is improved;

(6) the beveling structures are processed on the edges of the first metal sheet and the second metal sheet, so that a horn-like opening structure can be formed, the integral gain level of the antenna can be increased, and the radiation characteristic of the whole luneberg lens antenna is further optimized.

The technical effects of the invention are mainly brought by the structure of the invention, and are related to the specific values of the following parameters: thickness L of ten-layer medium cylindrical ring forming Luneberg lens₁～L₁₀Of metalRadius of circular part of sheet d, length of angular part of sheet metal d_fThickness of lens h₁Metal plus lens overall thickness h₂。

TABLE 1

Parameter(s)	L1	L2	L3	L4	L5	L6	L7	L8	L9
										Value (mm)	4.256	4.226	4.166	4.076	3.940	3.750	3.490	3.126	2.576
Parameter(s)	L10	d	df	h1	h2
										Value (mm)	1.590	53	15	5	15

The planar luneberg lens antenna is manufactured according to the numerical values, the numerical values are simulated, and the manufactured planar luneberg lens antenna is actually measured. The simulation software is HFSS and the test environment is SATIMO. The results of the simulation and the actual measurement are shown in fig. 5-11.

Fig. 5 shows a simulated field profile. As can be seen from the figures, it is,spherical waves from the feed source antenna pass through the lens and become plane waves with equal phase at the output end, and the design requirement of the luneberg lens antenna is basically met. Fig. 6 is a graph of the return loss-operating frequency simulation and test results of a planar luneberg lens antenna. From the figure, it is clear that S is from 33GHz to 37GHz₁₁The parameters are lower than-10 dB, while the measurement results are higher than the simulation results due to manufacturing errors and measurement errors.

Referring to fig. 7-8, fig. 7 is a graph of simulated and measured gain results for a planar luneberg lens antenna. It can be seen from the figure that the simulated and measured peak gains at 35GHz are respectively 15.64dBi and 13.98dBi, and the measured result has a gain drop of 1.56dBi compared with the simulated result, and the gain drop is caused by the air gap between the three layers of the feed antenna, the loss caused by using the SMA adapter and the measurement error. First, the dielectric constant of the dielectric ABS employed in practical cases is not exactly the same as the theoretical value, which leads to a reduction in lens performance. In addition, the feed source consists of three independent layers and should be connected in a seamless mode theoretically, however, when the three layers are fixed together, air gaps cannot be avoided between the three layers, the gain of the source antenna is reduced, and in addition, loss and measurement errors caused by the SMA adapter can not be ignored. The simulated radiation pattern and the actually measured radiation pattern of the planar luneberg lens antenna are shown in fig. 8, and by referring to the pattern, a pencil-shaped pattern can be observed, and reasonable consistency is kept between the simulation result and the actually measured result.

Referring to fig. 9, 10 and 11, in order to study the mutual influence among different feeds, the isolation among different input ports is evaluated, the simulation isolation result of a part of the ports is shown in fig. 9, and the measured isolation result among corresponding ports is shown in fig. 10, and the results show that in the simulation result, S parameters are all kept below-15 dB in the range from 34GHz to 36GHz, and in the measured case, S parameters are all kept below-20 dB from 33GHz to 37GHz, which indicates that the isolation among the ports is good and the mutual influence is small. Fig. 11 shows simulated radiation pattern and measured radiation pattern diagrams of multi-beam scanning of the planar luneberg lens antenna at 35GHz, wherein there are 9 main beams in the diagram, and the results are obtained after the lens is irradiated by the feed sources placed at different positions, respectively, wherein the solid line represents the simulated result, and the dotted line represents the measured result. As can be seen from the pattern curves, the gain of the center beam is 15.64dB and the gain of the edge beams is 15.34dB, indicating that the gain of each beam, including the edge beams, is almost the same. The result shows that the multi-beam scanning range of the planar luneberg lens antenna can cover 180 degrees.

The embodiment further includes a method for manufacturing a planar luneberg lens antenna with a wide scanning angle, which includes the following steps:

s1, layering the luneberg lens, and calculating the dielectric constant value required by each layer;

s2, calculating the thickness of each layer of medium by a double-layer cylinder equivalent dielectric constant calculation method according to the obtained dielectric constant value of each layer, and constructing the luneberg lens;

s3, adding metal sheets on the upper surface and the lower surface of the obtained lens, and fixing the lens through an adhesive;

s4, processing metal through holes on the first medium substrate and the second medium substrate, and mechanically connecting the three layers of medium substrates;

s5, fixing the lens part and the feed source part together on the support part.

The structural relationship of the luneberg lens, the metal sheet and the feed source refers to the product embodiment of the invention. The method embodiment of the invention can achieve the same technical effect as the product embodiment.

It should be noted that, unless otherwise specified, when a feature is referred to as being "fixed" or "connected" to another feature, it may be directly fixed or connected to the other feature or indirectly fixed or connected to the other feature. Furthermore, the descriptions of upper, lower, left, right, etc. used in the present disclosure are only relative to the mutual positional relationship of the constituent parts of the present disclosure in the drawings. As used in this disclosure, the singular forms "a", "an", and "the" are intended to include the plural forms as well, unless the context clearly indicates otherwise. In addition, unless defined otherwise, all technical and scientific terms used in this example have the same meaning as commonly understood by one of ordinary skill in the art. The terminology used in the description of the embodiments herein is for the purpose of describing particular embodiments only and is not intended to be limiting of the invention. As used in this embodiment, the term "and/or" includes any combination of one or more of the associated listed items.

It will be understood that, although the terms first, second, third, etc. may be used herein to describe various elements, these elements should not be limited by these terms. These terms are only used to distinguish one element of the same type from another. For example, a first element could be termed a second element, and, similarly, a second element could be termed a first element, without departing from the scope of the present disclosure. The use of any and all examples, or exemplary language ("e.g.," such as "or the like") provided with this embodiment is intended merely to better illuminate embodiments of the invention and does not pose a limitation on the scope of the invention unless otherwise claimed.

It should be recognized that embodiments of the present invention can be realized and implemented by computer hardware, a combination of hardware and software, or by computer instructions stored in a non-transitory computer readable memory. The methods may be implemented in a computer program using standard programming techniques, including a non-transitory computer-readable storage medium configured with the computer program, where the storage medium so configured causes a computer to operate in a specific and predefined manner, according to the methods and figures described in the detailed description. Each program may be implemented in a high level procedural or object oriented programming language to communicate with a computer system. However, the program(s) can be implemented in assembly or machine language, if desired. In any case, the language may be a compiled or interpreted language. Furthermore, the program can be run on a programmed application specific integrated circuit for this purpose.

Further, operations of processes described in this embodiment can be performed in any suitable order unless otherwise indicated herein or otherwise clearly contradicted by context. The processes described in this embodiment (or variations and/or combinations thereof) may be performed under the control of one or more computer systems configured with executable instructions, and may be implemented as code (e.g., executable instructions, one or more computer programs, or one or more applications) collectively executed on one or more processors, by hardware, or combinations thereof. The computer program includes a plurality of instructions executable by one or more processors.

Further, the method may be implemented in any type of computing platform operatively connected to a suitable interface, including but not limited to a personal computer, mini computer, mainframe, workstation, networked or distributed computing environment, separate or integrated computer platform, or in communication with a charged particle tool or other imaging device, and the like. Aspects of the invention may be embodied in machine-readable code stored on a non-transitory storage medium or device, whether removable or integrated into a computing platform, such as a hard disk, optically read and/or write storage medium, RAM, ROM, or the like, such that it may be read by a programmable computer, which when read by the storage medium or device, is operative to configure and operate the computer to perform the procedures described herein. Further, the machine-readable code, or portions thereof, may be transmitted over a wired or wireless network. The invention described in this embodiment includes these and other different types of non-transitory computer-readable storage media when such media include instructions or programs that implement the steps described above in conjunction with a microprocessor or other data processor. The invention also includes the computer itself when programmed according to the methods and techniques described herein.

A computer program can be applied to input data to perform the functions described in the present embodiment to convert the input data to generate output data that is stored to a non-volatile memory. The output information may also be applied to one or more output devices, such as a display. In a preferred embodiment of the invention, the transformed data represents physical and tangible objects, including particular visual depictions of physical and tangible objects produced on a display.

The above description is only a preferred embodiment of the present invention, and the present invention is not limited to the above embodiment, and any modifications, equivalent substitutions, improvements, etc. within the spirit and principle of the present invention should be included in the protection scope of the present invention as long as the technical effects of the present invention are achieved by the same means. The invention is capable of other modifications and variations in its technical solution and/or its implementation, within the scope of protection of the invention.