Due to the rapid development of wireless communication technologies, the number of wireless users are radically increasing. Currently, ∼23 billion wireless devices are connected to the internet, and these numbers are expected to increase manifolds in the years to come. The technology growth of the fifth-generation (5G) wireless systems will be needed to meet this high demand of the network. 5G wireless systems offer data-rates of up to 10Gbps, 1-ms latency, and reduced power consumption. It is a known fact that 5G wireless systems will be exploiting beyond the presently used 3 GHz microwave and millimetre-wave (mm-wave) frequency bands. This is the primary driver in the development of the 5G wireless system. Multi-beam Phased array antenna (PAA) systems are typically used in the deployment of 5G systems for high-gain and directionality. In current 5G and future Beyond 5G (B5G) antenna array systems, beamforming networks (BFNs) such as the Butler Matrix (BM) will play a key role in achieving multi-beam characteristics. So, this paper presents an extensive review of the BM based BFNs, and discusses which type of BM will be suitable for the phased array antenna (PAA) systems in the upcoming 5G and next-generation of B5G wireless systems. Moreover, this paper also summarizes the different types of BM designs based on the number of layers. The BMs are classified into the bi-layer, tri-layer, and four-layer structures. It includes different techniques that have been used to solve the problem of crossing, narrow bandwidth, and size reduction of the BM. From the previous studies, it is found that most of the past research work was performed using the bi-layer BM system, whereas the difficult geometries like tri-and four-layer BM are avoided due to their complex fabrication process. It is also found in this paper that the metamaterial (MTM) based bi-layer BM achieves low insertion-loss and phase-error, excellent bandwidth and compact size, and good S-parameter performance, which makes them an ideal BFN candidate for the upcoming 5G and next-generation B5G systems.INDEX TERMS Butler matrix (BM), metamaterial (MTM), 5G, beyond 5G (B5G), beamforming network (BFN), phased array antenna (PAA) systems.

In this paper, the design, simulation, fabrication, and characterization study of a low-cost and directional hybrid four-element (2 × 2 configuration) Minkowski–Sierpinski fractal antenna array (MSFAA) for the high-efficiency IEEE 802.11ax WLANs (Wi-Fi 6E) and the sub-6 GHz 5G wireless system is presented. Each element of the array is separated by 0.7 λ0. The complete four-element fractal antenna array system includes designing the single-element Minkowski–Sierpinski fractal antenna using two different substrates for performance comparison and an equal-split Wilkinson power divider (WPD) to achieve power division and to form a feed network. The single-element antenna, four-element fractal antenna array, and WPDs are fabricated using a flame-resistant (FR4) glass epoxy substrate with a dielectric constant (εr) of 4.3 and thickness (h) of 1.66 mm. For performance comparison, a high-end Rogers thermoset microwave material (TMM4) substrate is also used, having εr = 4.5 and h = 1.524mm, respectively. The designed four-element fractal antenna array operates at the dual-band frequencies of 4.17 and 5.97 GHz, respectively. The various performance parameters of the antenna array, such as return loss, bandwidth, gain, and 2D and 3D radiation patterns, are analyzed using CST Microwave Studio. The fabricated four-element antenna array provides the bandwidth and gain characteristic of 85 MHz/4.19 dB and 182 MHz/9.61 dB at 4.17 and 5.97 GHz frequency bands, respectively. The proposed antenna array design gives an improvement in the bandwidth, gain, and radiation pattern in the boresight at both frequencies. In the IEEE 802.11 ax WLANs (Wi-Fi 6E) deployments and the upcoming 5G wireless and satellite communication systems, it is critical to have directional antenna arrays to focus the radiated power in any specific direction. Therefore, it is believed that the proposed dual-band four-element fractal antenna array with directional radiation patterns can be an ideal candidate for the high-efficiency IEEE 802.11ax WLANs (Wi-Fi 6E) and the upcoming 5G wireless and satellite communication systems.

[10] Jain A, et al.

A compact triple-band operation ultra-wideband (UWB) antenna with dual-notch band characteristics is presented in this paper. By inserting three metamaterial (MTM) square split-ring resonators (MTM-SSRRs) and a triangular slot on the radiating patch, the antenna develops measured dual-band rejection at 4.17–5.33 GHz and 6.5–8.9 GHz in the UWB frequency range (3–12 GHz). The proposed antenna offers three frequency bands of operation in the UWB range, which are between 3–4.17 GHz (~1.2 GHz bandwidth), 5.33–6.5 GHz (~1.17 GHz bandwidth), and 8.9–12 GHz (~3.1 GHz bandwidth), respectively. The higher resonating frequency band can be tuned/controlled by varying the width of the triangle slot, while the medium operational band can be controlled by adjusting the width of the SSRR slot. Initially, the simulated S-parameter response, 2D and 3D radiation patterns, gain, and surface current distribution of the proposed UWB inverted triangular antenna has been studied using epoxy glass FR4 substrate having parameters εr = 4.3, h = 1.6 mm, and tan δ = 0.025, respectively. In order to validate the simulation results, the proposed UWB antenna with dual-notch band characteristics is finally fabricated and measured. The fabricated antenna’s return-loss and far-field measurements show good agreement with the simulated results. The proposed antenna achieved the measured gain of 2.3 dBi, 4.9 dBi, and 5.2 dBi at 3.5 GHz, 6.1 GHz, and 9.25 GHz, respectively. Additionally, an in-depth comparative study is performed to analyze the performance of the proposed antenna with existing designs available in the literature. The results show that the proposed antenna is an excellent candidate for fifth-generation (5G) mobile base-stations, next-generation WiFi-6E indoor distributed antenna systems (IDAS), as well as C-band and X-band applications.

This paper proposes a novel compact 4 × 4 butler matrix (BM) with improved bandwidth based on open-circuit coupled-lines and interdigital capacitor unit-cell to develop composite right/left handed (CRLH) transmission-line (TL) metamaterial structure. The BM is implemented by the combination of compact 3dB quadrature hybrid couplers, 0dB crossover and 45 • phase shifter on a single FR4 substrate (ε r = 4.3 and h = 1.66 mm). The simulated and measured result shows that the return loss and isolation loss are better than 14 dB at all the ports, good insertion loss of −7 ± 2dB, which cover the frequency range of 3.2 GHz to 3.75 GHz. The phase difference of −45 • , 135 • , −135 • and +45 • are achieved with a maximum average phase tolerance of 5 •. The overall dimension of the BM is 70mm × 73.7mm, which shows the compactness of the proposed design that is 75% size reduction and 8.2 times improvement in the bandwidth (550MHz) as compared to conventional BM. The CST microwave studio is used to design and perform the simulations. Additionally, the simulated and measured scattering parameters and phase differences show that they are in good agreement. This compact and improved bandwidth of the proposed BM is suitable for 5G antenna array beamforming network. INDEX TERMS 5G, composite right/left handed (CRLH) transmission-line, metamaterial, beamforming network (BFN), Butler matrix (BM), branch line coupler (BLC).