Triband Antenna Array for FR1/FR2 5G NR Base Stations

Abstract

This paper presents the concept and development of a novel tri-band base station antenna array for the two 5G New Radio (5G NR) frequency ranges, i.e. FR1 and FR2. The proposed array combines three different dipole-shaped antenna arrays, one designed for FR2 and two for FR1 standardized bands, aiming sectorial coverage, multiple-input and multiple-output (MIMO) and massive MIMO (mMIMO) applications. Particularly, a total of 98 radiating elements implies in 80, 16 and 02 antenna array elements for the 26 GHz band (N258 channel), 3.5 GHz band (N77 and N78 channels) and sub-GHz band (N20 and N28 channels), respectively. Experimental results, in accordance to ANSYS HFSS numerical simulations, demonstrate dual-polarization feature and the following bandwidths: from 0.65 to 0.88 GHz; from 2.76 to 4.2 GHz; from 24.9 to 27.8 GHz. Regarding the array radiation pattern and MIMO figures of merit, the coupling among the array adjacent elements is kept lower than -20 dB and envelope correlation coefficient (ECC) lower than 0.005. Furthermore, all array elements provide beamwidth of approximately 60°, cross-polarization lower than -20 dB, and gain varying from 7 to 9.7 dBi over the 5G bands.