Abstract
A compact low-profile phased array antenna unit with unidirectional hemispherical beam-coverage for 5G mm-wave applications is proposed in this paper. A four-subarray configuration is used for the proposed structure to achieve unidirectional hemispherical coverage in the boresight direction normal to the substrate. An artificial magnetic conductor (AMC)-backed slot antenna array with an optimal separation distance of 1.9 mm (= 0.31 λ at 28 GHz) is proposed as a subarray. The proposed antenna has increased H -plane beamwidth with the measured peak gain of 11.62 dBi and provides the desired wide inclined beam pattern in the elevation plane. The proposed antenna also offers steered beams over the range within ±45° in the azimuth plane. The hemispherical-coverage, phased array antenna unit composed of the four designed subarrays has overall dimensions of 80.8 mm × 80.8 mm × 2.4 mm. The coverage efficiencies of the proposed phased array antenna unit are 0.82, 0.71, and 0.61 for threshold gains of 5 dBi, 8 dBi, and 10 dBi, respectively, where the maximum solid angle is 2π steradians.
Highlights
With the explosive growth of mobile data traffic over the last few years, the demands for higher data-rate services have risen sharply
A key technology that allows for the evolution of data speed and network capacity on 5G systems is the use of millimeter-wave bands with large spectrum resources
The boresight direction of the hemispherical coverage area of those phased array units is parallel to the antenna substrate instead of normal to it. This gives phased array antenna units a high-profile, making them difficult to integrate with the systems for the aformentioned mm-wave applications. To address this issue, we propose a compact low-profile phased array antenna unit with the desired unidirectional hemispherical beam-coverage for the aforementioned 5G mm-wave applications
Summary
With the explosive growth of mobile data traffic over the last few years, the demands for higher data-rate services have risen sharply. Reconfigurable phased array units with a combination of broadside and end-fire radiations [17]–[19] and controlled pin-diodes [20] have been presented These studies have effectively improved spatial coverage efficiency by achieving 360◦ spherical beam-coverage, and they are promising candidate techniques for mm-wave 5G mobile handsets. If adopting the subarray configurations presented in previous work [13]–[15], [17]–[20] designed for mobile handsets, the desired complete unidirectional broadside hemispherical coverage is difficult to achieve. To address this issue, we propose a compact low-profile phased array antenna unit with the desired unidirectional hemispherical beam-coverage for the aforementioned 5G mm-wave applications.
Sign-in/Register to view highlights & summary Sign-in/Register to access full text options 
Free) 
Talk to us
Join us for a 30 min session where you can share your feedback and ask us any queries you have
Schedule a call
