Broadband High-Gain Beam-Scanning Antenna Array for Millimeter-Wave Applications

Abstract

Abstract-A novel method of achieving low-profile, broadband microstrip array antennas with high antenna gain is proposed for millimeter-wave (mm-wave) applications. The element employs a novel 3 rd -order vertically coupled resonant structure that a U-slot resonator in the ground is used to couple with the feeding resonator and the radiating patch, simultaneously. This proposed structure can significantly improve the bandwidth and frequency selectivity without increasing the thickness of the antenna. Then, to achieve the subarray, a new wideband power divider with loaded resonators is employed, which can be used to further improve the bandwidth. To demonstrate the working schemes of broadside radiation and scanned beam, two 4 × 4 array antennas are implemented on the same board. Measured results agree well with the simulations, showing a wide bandwidth from 22 to 32 GHz (FBW = 37%) with the gain of around 19 dBi. The beam scanning array can realize a scanning angle of over 25 degrees over a broadband. In addition, due to the filtering features are integrated in the design, the proposed antenna could also reduce the complexity and potential cost of the frontends.Index Terms-Broadband, beam scanning, filtering, millimeter-wave, antenna array, antenna, 5G. I. INTRODUCTIONThe emerging fifth-generation (5G) mobile communication has attracted intensive research interests in academia and industry because of its huge potentials such as high data rate and significant reduction of digital traffic [1]- [2]. In the 5G era, lots of things such as electronic devices, vehicles and the equipment in the offices and homes will be wirelessly connected through the Internet. Users will be able to access ultra-high-definition (UHD) multimedia streaming and services such as Virtual Reality (VR) and Augmented Reality (AR) [2]. All these potential services will inevitably demand a very wide bandwidth to support the extremely high data rate in 5G wireless communication. The millimeter wave (mm-wave) frequency band is widely believed to be a good candidate to realize a wideband operation.For mm-wave applications, other problems to be concerned are the higher transmission loss and link stability, which could be overcome by increasing the gain and adopting the adaptive directional beam [2]. Massive MIMO base station is a promising technique for improving the capacity and service quality by accurately concentrating the transmitted energy to the mobile users [3]- [5], as the architecture shown in Fig. 1. The massive MIMO antenna has multiple antenna subarrays in two dimensions and each can adaptively direct the beams to the users in azimuth and elevation directions. Thanks to each subarray is composed of n × n radiation elements, high antenna gain and steerable beam can be achieved. Due to the short wavelength at mm-waves and limited coverage of each 5G cellular, the mm-wave base-station antennas with low cost, low profile and light weight will be in huge demand in urban areas.To date, several mm-wave antennas have been reported for 5G commun...

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