Millimeter-Wave Broadband MIMO Antenna Using Metasurfaces for 5G Cellular Networks

Abstract

Developing a millimeter-wave (mm-wave) antenna that enables wide bandwidth with its operating band covering the entire global 5G spectrum is highly desirable but very challenging for achieving both compact size and high-performance antenna. Herein, the mm-wave microstrip patch antenna (MPA) and its multiple-input multiple-output (MIMO) configuration based on the metasurfaces for 5G system applications are proposed and investigated by the simulation method. To improve performance and keep the low-profile and low-cost MPA antenna, square ring resonator (SQRR) metasurface and radiating patch are printed on a single dielectric layer. With the presence of the metasurfaces that acting as a secondary radiator, the performance of the designed antenna is significantly improved with a wide operating band in the range of 23.9-30.7 GHz, high peak gain of 9.4 dBic, and radiation efficiency of above 87%. Based on this design, four-port MIMO antenna configuration is performed for evaluating a MIMO system that realizes the advantage features such as compact size, wide bandwidth covering the entire global mm-wave 5G spectrum band of 24.25-29.5 GHz, and excellent diversity performance characterized by good isolation between the adjacent elements and low envelope correlation coefficient. Thus, the MIMO antenna design is a very promising candidate for 5G MIMO mm-wave applications, specifically in cellular systems.