BeamLab
A desktop tool that lets ham radio operators and maker-space hobbyists design their own Rotman-lens-style multi-beam antenna arrays — outputting gerber files, BOMs, and 3D-printable enclosures — without needing an RF engineering degree.
Ham radio operators and DIY RF hobbyists who want to build beam-steering antennas at home
- Drag-and-drop Rotman lens designer with live beam-pattern simulation across 2.4, 5.8, and 1296 MHz
- Auto-generated gerber and STL files ready for PCB fab and 3D printing
- Recipe library of community-shared builds with measured gain and SWR data
- Companion SDR plugin that lets you measure your finished lens against the simulation
The HN redraw of the Rotman lens article is reigniting hobbyist interest in lens-based beamforming at the same time that cheap PCB fab (JLCPCB, PCBWay) and SDR dongles have made what was once military-only buildable at the kitchen table.
Rotman lens discussion on HN drew only 66 points/17 comments (modest); the existing literature is dominated by academic and 5G/mmWave papers (e.g., Nature 2024 paper), not hobbyist builds, indicating a narrow DIY audience.Design of a novel wide-angle Rotman lens beamformer for 5G - Nature ↗
All current Rotman-lens design tools are either MATLAB-bound (MathWorks rotmanLens object), coupled to HFSS (GitHub matlab-hfss-rotman), or enterprise EDA (Remcom XFdtd/RLD); no consumer/hobbyist desktop GUI with Gerber + 3D export exists, and 4nec2/EZNEC don't cover lens beamformers.rotmanLens - MATLAB - MathWorks ↗Remcom Rotman Lens Design Software (RLD) ↗
Ham radio users do pay for antenna tools (EZNEC, 4nec2 are the well-known paid/free standards in the category), but Remcom targets defense with enterprise pricing and no indie Rotman-tool precedent exists; a $50–150 price point is plausible but total addressable buyers likely small.EZNEC Antenna Software by W7EL ↗Best Ham Antenna Design Software - 2026 Buyer's Guide ↗
Rotman lens design is being actively re-popularized by 5G/6G mmWave, SATCOM, and automotive radar research (Nature 2024 paper), and cheap JLCPCB/PCBWay fab makes the technology durable for at least the next 5–10 years.Design of a novel wide-angle Rotman lens beamformer for 5G - Nature ↗
Wrapping a Rotman lens with Gerber export and BOM is feasible since closed-form Rotman geometry equations are well documented (Remcom RLD, MATLAB object are references), but accurate EM validation (FDTD/MoM) and a friendly GUI for non-RF hobbyists is a multi-engineer-year build.Remcom Rotman Lens Design Software (RLD) ↗