Millimeter wave phased array antenna for modern wireless communication systems

Abstract

This paper reports on the development of a switched-beam phased array antenna which is the first 35 GHz Butler Matrix based phased array on a single layer substrate. The structure consists of four linearly placed rectangular patch antennas, four hybrids, two crossovers, two 45 o phase shifters and a corporate feed network. In the array, in order to steer the beam, a 4x4 Butler Matrix has been successfully designed and simulated. The results show that the beam can be nearly steered -45 o / -15 o /+15 o /+45 o . The scanned gain of the phased array antenna is nearly 8 dBi. This switched beam forming system can be used in modern wireless communication systems.Index Terms-beamforming network, Butler matrix, millimeter wave array, phased array.I.

Review on Ultra-Wideband Phased Array Antennas

“…Recently, UWB phased array antennas have gained prominence in radars [1][2], communications [3], satellites [4], next-generation systems (5G) [5], electronic warfare (EW) [6][7][8] , and radio astronomy [9][10][11][12][13] applications. The demand for higher bandwidth is abruptly increases in commercial applications, as well.…”

Substrate Integrated Components for Passive Millimeterwave-Frequency Beamforming Networks

“…In addition, the directive beam pattern of these antenna arrays can be electronically steered towards the users, or Multiple Input/Multiple Output (MIMO) communication schemes can be leveraged [1]. To this end, a low loss beamforming network is required that fits within the footprint of the antenna array, in which the inter antenna element spacing is typically half a wavelength for a good grating-lobe-free scan range [2].…”

“…Minimizing interconnection loss is crucial in achieving efficient mmWave systems. However, microstrip line feeding networks suffer from increased radiation loss when migrating to higher frequencies [2]- [4], while their substrateintegrated-waveguide (SIW) counterparts are generally bulky [5], [6]. Therefore, this paper describes low loss, compact components for beamforming networks based on groundedcoplanar waveguide (GCPW) technology, which is known for its compact footprint and reduced radiation characteristic, while maintaining decent power handling capability [1].…”

“…Popular planar crossover designs usually consist of concatenating two hybrid couplers, resulting in bulky structures with increased insertion losses [2], [8]. A multi-layer crossover with transmission lines on separate PCB layers provides a compact, low loss alternative next to yielding excellent crosstalk suppression.…”