Int. J. Electron. Commun.

(AEÜ) 99 (2019) 59–69

Contents lists available at ScienceDirect

International Journal of Electronics and

Communications (AEÜ)
journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/aeue

Regular paper

Printed millimeter-wave MIMO-based slot antenna arrays

for 5G networks
Ayman Ayd R. Saad a,⇑, Hesham A. Mohamed b
a
Kosseir Radio, Telecom Egypt, Kosseir 84712, Egypt
b
Microstrip Department, Electronics Research Institute (ERI), Giza 12622, Egypt

a r t i c l e i n f o a b s t r a c t

Article history: In this work, a broadband millimeter-wave (mm-wave) multiple-input–multiple-output (MIMO) antenna
Received 19 August 2018 system for upcoming fifth generation (5G) networks is presented. The MIMO antenna system is two ports
Accepted 14 November 2018 and realized using two antenna arrays, aligned in opposite directions. Each array consist of three ele-
ments in each, as each element is a simple recognized printed wide-slot antenna proximity excited by
microstrip line with a widened tuning stub; manipulated for operating in the Ka-band, which includes
Keywords: the 28 and 38 GHz bands, as potential candidates for 5G communications. An electromagnetic band-
Millimeter-wave
gap (EBG) reflector is placed behind the antenna structure toward the feeding network to decrease the
Ka-band
5G communications
backward radiation and improve the front-to-back (F/B) ratio. Results show that the proposed MIMO
Slot antenna array antenna system with EBG reflector provides wideband impedance bandwidth >27 GHz (from 22.5 to
Broadband antenna >50 GHz) and good radiation characteristics with a total realized gain up to 11.5 and 10.9 dBi at the
MIMO system two frequencies of interest, respectively. The envelope correlation coefficient (ECC) and diversity gain
EBG reflector (DG) were evaluated and showed good MIMO performance. These remarkable features with the benefits
of design simplicity and easily expansion to large-scale antenna system make the proposed design suit-
able for mm-wave communications.
Ó 2018 Elsevier GmbH. All rights reserved.

1. Introduction to their uniplanar structure and favorable impedance characteris-

tics [3–8]. Another important issue to be considered is that
The mobile communication systems have made remarkable millimeter-wave (mm-wave) spectrum can regard as a key
development in the last three decades. It has experienced different enabling technology for 5G communications where much unused
generations of technology evolved from first generation (1G) based spectrum is available. Several researchers around the world are
analog transmission to fourth generation (4G) based Internet Pro- investigating various bands in the mm-wave spectrum as potential
tocol (IP) digital transmission [1]. However, the near future looks candidates for such a technology. Such bands include the 28 GHz
much brighter for the next fifth generation (5G) technology which band (27.5–29.5 GHz), the 38 GHz band (36–40 GHz), the 60 GHz
will be projected to fruition higher data rates services, faster band (57–64 GHz), and the E-band (71–76 and 81–86 GHz) [9].
latency rates, lesser in costs and usage of energy, and supported However, due to the high path loss at the mm-wave frequencies,
more number of devices which deals many new applications antenna array may be required to provide improved gain.
beyond personal communications [2]. Up till now a specific standard has not been established for 5G
Printed antennas have been the best choice for use in mobile wireless technology. However, several researchers have started to
communication systems. However, there are many important put the base for that standard. Accordingly, different antenna sys-
issues to be considered in designing antennas for expected 5G tems in single [10,11] and array [12–22] configurations have been
communication systems. One is that antennas require low-profile studied. In those studies, the 28 and/or 38 GHz sub-bands have
and built-in structure to easily integrate with other system compo- been chosen as feasible candidates for the upcoming technology,
nents [1]. Another is that antennas require wide operational band- where at these frequencies atmospheric absorption and rain atten-
width. However, over the past decades printed slot antennas have uation have minimal effects on the propagation for small cells [23].
become attractive candidates for such communication systems due Multiple-input–multiple-output (MIMO) technology has been
developed by utilizing multiple antennas at both the transmitter
⇑ Corresponding author. and receiver sides of the communication system. MIMO system
E-mail address: [email protected] (A.A.R. Saad). can increase the data rate within limited power and bandwidth.

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.aeue.2018.11.029
1434-8411/Ó 2018 Elsevier GmbH. All rights reserved.
60 A.A.R. Saad, H.A. Mohamed / Int. J. Electron. Commun. (AEÜ) 99 (2019) 59–69

works have been done for 5G applications in mm-wave range

[29–33]. In [29], a printed inverted F-antenna (PIFA) antenna sys-
tem of three elements was presented for 5G wireless communica-
tions. It was covering 28 GHz frequency band with 807 MHz of
bandwidth. The antenna elements were arranged in a certain man-
ner to reduce the mutual coupling effect. In [30], a 4
4 dual-band
MIMO antenna which operates at 28 and 38 GHz bands was pre-
sented. The antenna provided wide-bands of 14.3% and 5.26% at
the two frequencies, respectively. Isolation was improved using
structure of round patch EBG cells. A 4
4 single-band MIMO
antenna was reported in [31]. It was covering 28 GHz band and
operated in the frequency range from 26 to 31 GHz. The isolation
between the antenna elements was enhanced by trimming the cor-
ners of the rectangular high refractive index metamaterial region
Fig. 1. Geometrical configuration of the proposed single mm-wave 5G antenna (a) along with a ground stub between antenna elements. In [32],
top view (b) bottom view.
antenna of two orthogonally polarized elements for MIMO applica-
tions was presented. The antenna achieved wide impedance band-
width form 3 to 30 GHz with port isolation better than 20 dB. A
Furthermore, the ability to mitigate the multipath effects. How- recent design based dielectric resonator antenna (DRA) enabling
ever, a high port isolation and low correlation are two different MIMO operation for 5G communications was presented in [33]. It
metrics required for building a MIMO antenna system with good operated at 30 GHz with about 1 GHz of bandwidth. Each element
performance, which are greatly affected by mutual coupling of the MIMO antenna system consisted of a linear array of four
between antenna elements [24]. Mutual coupling has also negative cylindrical DRA. The design reported for beam tilting by using a
effect on the radiation efficiency of the antenna. Therefore, various special feed network with a fixed-progressive phase.
investigations have focused on reducing the mutual coupling In this work, a printed MIMO antenna system based on two
effects of MIMO antenna system, including the use of electromag- arrays for accommodated within mm-wave 5G networks is pre-
netic band-gap (EBG) structures, which limit the surface currents sented. EBG reflector is integrated into the antenna system to
[25,26], or employing parasitic coupling structures between improve the radiation characteristics. The proposed antenna is
antenna elements, which acts as reflectors [27]. However, these designed to operate at Ka-band, covering the highly considered fre-
techniques may deteriorate the impedance matching of the MIMO quency bands of 28/38 GHz for 5G communications. Also, it has an
antenna, thus making it difficult to achieve a wide impedance advantage of being broadband with very wide bandwidth of more
bandwidth simultaneously with high port isolation and low corre- than 27 GHz as it can cover several of the potential mm-wave
lation. Recently, an antenna interference cancellation chip (AICC) applications. Detailed design methodology and results obtained
with a high-pass response to mitigate the mutual coupling of via simulation and experimental evaluation are presented and dis-
two antennas resonating in contiguous frequency bands has been cussed in the following Sections.
reported in [28]. It has a unique feature to fine tune the extent of
mutual coupling reduction and the antenna matching. 2. Initial mm-wave 5G antenna element design
Benefiting from the advantages of MIMO technology, integra-
tion of MIMO antenna system with arrays configurations can pro- The geometrical configuration of initial design of 5G broadband
vide some novel design solutions for mobile communications at printed slot antenna is shown in Fig. 1, which is constructed on
mm-wave frequencies. However, the literature in this area is lim- both sides of a RogersÒ RO4003CTM material with a dielectric con-
ited and needs more research and thorough investigation. Some stant (er) of 3.55 and height of 0.203 mm. It composed of a wide

Table 1
Optimized design parameters of the proposed single mm-wave 5G antenna (units in mm).

L W Lf Wf Ls Ws Lg Wg S
6.0 6.0 3.0 0.44 1.0 2.2 2.72 3.75 0.11

Fig. 2. Fabricated model of proposed the single mm-wave 5G antenna (a) top view (b) bottom view.
 A.A.R. Saad, H.A. Mohamed / Int. J. Electron. Commun. (AEÜ) 99 (2019) 59–69 61

Fig. 3. Simulated (CST MWS) reflection coefficient |S11| curves versus frequency of the proposed single mm-wave 5G antenna (a) with and without tuning stub (b) for various
tuning stub widths, Ws. (c) for various tuning stub lengths, Ls (d) for various tuning stub locations, S. (Other parameters are the same as listed in Table 1)

controlling the radiation from the ground plane aperture. The per-
formance of the proposed broadband antenna is analyzed and opti-
mized using full-wave EM simulators, Computer Simulation
Technology (CST) Microwave Studio (MWS) and ANSYS high-
frequency structural simulator (HFSS). CST simulation was per-
formed using time-domain solver, whereas HFSS simulation was
performed using frequency-domain solver. We have used the both
simulation methods for sake of comparison, due to the unavailabil-
ity of an mm-wave anechoic chamber for measuring the radiation
characteristics of the antenna system. The optimized antenna
parameters are shown in a tabulated form in Table 1. To examine
the actual performance and validate the simulation results, the
antenna prototypes during design evolution process were fabri-
cated and their performances in terms of S-parameters were mea-
sured by Rohde & Schwarz ZVA 67 Vector Network Analyzer using
Fig. 4. Measured and simulated reflection coefficient |S11| curves and simulated
50 X ports. For the measurement considerations, the ground plane
realized gain values versus frequency of the proposed single mm-wave 5G antenna.
as well as the microstrip feeding line of the antenna prototypes
were extended long enough for placing the commercial 1.85 mm
End Launch Connector [35]. However, this process has not notice-
rectangular aperture etched on the ground plane and proximity fed able effect in the measured performance. Fabricated model of the
by a 50 X microstrip feed line placed on the other side of the proposed single mm-wave 5G antenna is shown in Fig. 2.
antenna substrate. To enhance the coupling between the feed line The reflection coefficient |S11| curves of the proposed single
and radiating aperture and thus improve the impedance matching, mm-wave 5G antenna with and without a tuning stub are shown
a widened tuning stub was connected to the end of the microstrip in Fig. 3(a). It can be clearly observed that the impedance matching
feed line toward the origin of the coordinate system of the antenna of the antenna is strongly depends on the tuning stub. Parametric
in such way as reported in [34]. Proximity-fed scheme was chosen study given in Fig. 3(b)–(d) which performed with CST MWS, show
with a widened tuning stub for much more degrees of freedom in that the impedance bandwidth is mainly determined by the width,
62 A.A.R. Saad, H.A. Mohamed / Int. J. Electron. Commun. (AEÜ) 99 (2019) 59–69

Fig. 5. Geometrical configuration and parameters of the proposed mm-wave 5G MIMO antenna array system backed by EBG reflector (a) 2D view (b) 3D view.

Table 2
Optimized design parameters of the proposed mm-wave 5G MIMO antenna array system with EBG reflector (units in mm).

Lm Wm L1 W1 L2 W2 L3 W3 Sh Sv Rc Wc We Lc Lr d
20 53 1.2 0.7 1.1 1.1 1.0 2.0 5.25 8.0 0.95 0.15 0.15 0.51 31.7 3.5

length and location of the tuning stub beneath the ground plane shown in Fig. 4. The measured and simulated curves match well
slot. The effect of each parameter is shown with excluding the with each other. The tested antenna model achieved operation
effect of the other ones. By properly adjusting these parameters, bandwidth (|S11| < 10 dB) from 20 to beyond 50 GHz, which
a wide impedance bandwidth can be obtained. In this study, the covers the 28 and 38 GHz sub-frequency bands. The simulated
tuning stub width of Ws = 2.2 mm, length of Ls = 1.0 mm, and gain variation is also shown in Fig. 4. Result shows that the max-
location of S = 0.11 mm are considered to perform broadband imum peak gain is about 4.5 dBi over the operating band of inter-
operation of higher than 72% from 23.5 to more than 50 GHz est. Average realized peak gain values of 4.1 and 3.9 dBi are
for a reflection coefficient lower than 10 dB. Comparison of calculated at the two considered frequencies of 28 and 38 GHz,
measured and simulated reflection coefficient |S11| curves is respectively.
 A.A.R. Saad, H.A. Mohamed / Int. J. Electron. Commun. (AEÜ) 99 (2019) 59–69 63

Fig. 6. Fabricated models of the proposed mm-wave 5G MIMO antenna system during the design evolution process (a) three-element array (b) two-port MIMO antenna array
system (c) EBG reflector.

Fig. 7. Simulated (CST MWS) S-parameters curves versus frequency of the proposed mm-wave 5G MIMO antenna array system for various confrontation edge-to-edge
spacings between antenna elements, Sh (a) |S11| (b) |S21|.

Fig. 8. Simulated (CST MWS) S-parameters curves versus frequency of the proposed mm-wave 5G MIMO antenna array system for various interleaving spacings between the
two arrays in the MIMO structure, Sv (a) |S11| (b) |S21|.
64 A.A.R. Saad, H.A. Mohamed / Int. J. Electron. Commun. (AEÜ) 99 (2019) 59–69

Fig. 9. Simulated (CST MWS) surface current distributions on the proposed mm-wave 5G MIMO antenna array system at (a) 28 GHz (b) 38 GHz.

corners and three-step Chebyshev transformer with different char-

acteristic impedances of 37, 27, and 17 X, respectively which prop-
erly designed such that the output of each way would have equal
amplitude of one third of the input power. The discontinuity of
the bends were compensated by mitereing the corners.
In such MIMO configuration, the inter-element spacing
between the array elements and the interleaving position between
the two arrays played a big role in the performance of the antenna.
Parametric studies were performed using CST Microwave Studio to
obtain good impedance matching and reasonable isolation perfor-
mance simultaneously over the whole operating band of interest.
Results in Fig. 7 show that by adjusting the inter-element spacing
between the adjacent slots in the MIMO configuration, Sh to be
5.25 mm (confrontation edge-to-edge), good impedance matching
with high port isolation better than 20 dB can be achieved without
Fig. 10. Measured and simulated reflection coefficient |S11| curves versus frequency
of the proposed three-element mm-wave 5G antenna array. using extra decoupling structure. Fig. 8 show that the interleaving
between the two arrays for specific opposite locations, Sv has neg-
ligible effect on the antenna reflection coefficient, |S11|. For Sv = 8 -
3. Proposed mm-wave 5G MIMO antenna system design mm (about k0/2 at lowest analysis frequency of 21 GHz), the |S21|
maintains under 20 dB over the operating frequency band. To
Fig. 5 shows the complete geometry and parameters of the pro- better express the isolation mechanism, Fig. 9 shows the surface
posed mm-wave MIMO antenna array system with EBG reflector. current distribution at two different frequencies of 28 and
The optimized design parameters are represented in a tabular form 38 GHz, when port 1 is excited and port 2 is terminated with
in Table 2. Fabricated models during the design evolution process 50 X matched load. It is obvious that a small amount of current
are shown in Fig. 6. The MIMO antenna array system has a compact is getting coupled to port 2 at the both frequencies, and vice versa,
size of overall dimensions of 53 mm
20 mm and printed on a which results in high port isolation.
dielectric substrate that is the same as the unit-element used. It The frequency response of the three-element array antenna and
consisted of two antenna arrays, aligned in opposite directions. the configured two-port MIMO system are shown in Figs. 10 and
Each array has three identical radiating elements. Three-way 11, respectively. Results indicate that when the individual antenna
power divider is designed to feed the sub-array elements by element is aggregated into array of three elements, then configured
50 X main line. It composed of straight microstrip line, 90° bends into two-port MIMO system, the impedance matching of the

Fig. 11. Measured and simulated S-parameters curves versus frequency of the proposed mm-wave 5G MIMO antenna array system. (a) |S11| (b) |S21|.
 A.A.R. Saad, H.A. Mohamed / Int. J. Electron. Commun. (AEÜ) 99 (2019) 59–69 65

Fig. 12. Simulated realized peak gain values versus frequency of the proposed (a) three-element mm-wave 5G antenna array (b) two-port mm-wave 5G MIMO antenna array
system.

three-element antenna array in the first band at 28 GHz and the

second band at 38 GHz are increased by 5.23 and 3.76 dBi, respec-
tively compared to the peak gain values of the unit-element
antenna depicted in Fig. 4, which is as expected. Fig. 12(b) demon-
strates the MIMO antenna array system has maximum gain of 9.08
and 7.8 dBi at the two frequencies of interest, respectively. The cal-
culated radiation efficiency values of the proposed antenna system
for the two configurations are more than 94% over the whole oper-
ating frequency band.
It is worth mentioning that slot antenna provides bi-directional
radiation pattern, which is not suitable for commercial applica-
tions. The bi-directional pattern can be changed to a unidirectional
pattern by placing an EBG reflector behind the antenna system. The
EBG reflector is preferred rather than the perfect electric conductor
(PEC) reflector to realize a smaller height between the antenna and
Fig. 13. Simulated reflection phase of the proposed EBG unit-cell using CST
the reflector, thus provide low-profile antenna structure. To
Microwave Studio. improve the radiation characteristics of the proposed MIMO slot
antenna array system and increase the F/B ratio, EBG reflector is
placed behind the antenna system. It consists of 25
15 unit cells
antenna is maintained. The proposed MIMO antenna array system printed on a substrate that is the same as used in the antenna
can achieve measured impedance bandwidth ranging from 21 to design with total size of 53 mm
31.7 mm. The other side of the
more than 50 GHz. Good port isolation of more than 20 dB is EBG substrate is printed by copper. The geometry of the proposed
achieved over the whole operating band and exceed up to about EBG reflector is shown in Fig. 5 and a fabricated model is shown in
35 dB at the two desired frequencies, 28 and 38 GHz. The slight dif- Fig. 6(c). The EBG reflector is designed such that the reflection
ferences between the simulated and measured curves may be phase at 38 GHz is zero for a plane wave normally illuminating
attributed to the imperfect modeling of the full-wave simulations the EBG reflector. The reflection phase of the EBG unit cell struc-
as well the fabrication errors and the effect of substrate variations. ture and the height between antenna and reflector plane are opti-
Fig. 12 shows the realized peak gain of the two antenna configura- mized via simulation. The distance between the antenna and the
tions. Fig. 12(a) shows that the average peak gain values of the reflector was found to be 3.5 mm to maintain the antenna charac-

Fig. 14. Measured and simulated S-parameters curves versus frequency of the proposed mm-wave 5G MIMO antenna array system backed by EBG reflector. (a) |S11| (b) |S21|.
66 A.A.R. Saad, H.A. Mohamed / Int. J. Electron. Commun. (AEÜ) 99 (2019) 59–69

Fig. 15. Diversity performance from simulated 3D radiation patterns of the proposed mm-wave 5G MIMO antenna array system backed by EBG reflector. (a) ECC (b) DG.

Fig. 16. Simulated normalized 2D gain patterns using CST MWS (blue solid line) and HFSS (red dashed line) for the proposed mm-wave 5G MIMO antenna array system
backed by EBG reflector at 28 GHz in xz-plane (left) and yz-plane (right), (a) port 1 (b) port 2. (For interpretation of the references to colour in this figure legend, the reader is
referred to the web version of this article.)

teristics, which is a bout quarter wavelength at the lowest operat- The measured and simulated reflection coefficient and isolation
ing frequency of 22.5 GHz. Fig. 13 shows the reflection phase curves of the proposed antenna system after using the EBG reflector
results of the EBG unit cell carried out via CST simulation. As seen is shown in Fig. 14(a) and (b), respectively. The complete antenna
from the curve, the zero reflection phase is obtained at 38 GHz. system can achieve measured impedance bandwidth ranging from
 A.A.R. Saad, H.A. Mohamed / Int. J. Electron. Commun. (AEÜ) 99 (2019) 59–69 67

22.5 to more than 50 GHz with |S11| < 10 dB except a where q12 is the correlation coefficient between arrays 1 and 2, qe12
little > 10 dB at 29–33 GHz is observed. Good measured isolation is the envelop correlation coefficient between arrays 1 and 2, and
of more than 20 dB is observed over the most of the operating band- Ei ðh; /Þ is the complex 3D radiated field pattern for array i.
width. However, the performance of this structure is worse than the Fig. 15(a) shows the ECC of the complete MIMO antenna system
antenna structure before using the EBG reflector. The worst-case evaluated via CST and HFSS simulations, with reasonable agree-
simulated isolation value of 10 dB was observed at 42 GHz. ment between them. It can be seen that the ECC values are less
It should be noted that the port isolation and correlation coeffi- than 0.12 across the operating band, which are below the accept-
cient of the antenna system are two different quantities and both able limit defined by less than 0.5, indicating that the proposed
are required to evaluate the performance of MIMO system, in which MIMO antenna can provide good pattern diversity performance.
high isolation (low coupling) does not guarantee a low correlation The diversity gain (DG) is another parameter that can be used to
coefficient [24]. The square of the correlation coefficient is known evaluate the diversity performance of the MIMO antenna system.
as the envelope correlation coefficient (ECC) which is used to evalu- The DG can be calculated as [37]
ate diversity performance of the MIMO system. The ECC metric is pffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffi
important because it shows the amount of channel isolation in a DG ¼ 10 1  qe12 ð2Þ
wireless communication link. ECC can be calculated from the
embedded 3D far field radiation patterns or the scattering parame- The DG of complete MIMO antenna system is illustrated in
ters. However, it is worthy to mention that calculating the ECC val- Fig. 15(b). It can be seen that the calculated results using both
ues from S-parameters is not completely correct and greatly CST MWS and HFSS are in a good agreement and shows DG of more
underestimates its values when evaluating any lossy antenna [24]. than 9.4 dB within the frequency band of interest.
The ECC (qe) can be computed using the complex field data, The normalized simulated 2D far-field gain patterns in terms of
based on the assumption of having an isotropic wireless environ- Etotal for the proposed MIMO antenna array system with EBG reflec-
ment as [36] tor at 28 and 38 GHz in xz- and yz-planes when port 1 and port 2
ZZ 2 were separately excited (while other port is matched) are illus-
 
 ½E1 ðh; /Þ  E2 ðh; /Þ trated in Figs. 16 and 17, respectively. The simulated results using

4p
ECC ¼ jq12 j2 ¼ qe12 ¼ ZZ ZZ ð1Þ the two simulators are in a good agreement; while the slight
2 2
jE1 ðh; /Þj dX jE2 ðh; /Þj dX mismatch may be attributed to imperfect of the simulation. The
4p 4p nulls occur in the boresight direction because the relatively large

Fig. 17. Simulated normalized 2D gain patterns using CST MWS (blue solid line) and HFSS (red dashed line) for the proposed mm-wave 5G MIMO antenna array system
backed by EBG reflector at 38 GHz in xz-plane (left) and yz-plane (right), (a) port 1 (b) port 2. (For interpretation of the references to colour in this figure legend, the reader is
referred to the web version of this article.)
68 A.A.R. Saad, H.A. Mohamed / Int. J. Electron. Commun. (AEÜ) 99 (2019) 59–69

Fig. 18. Simulated radiation characteristics of the proposed MIMO antenna system backed by EBG reflector. (a) Realized peak gain (b) radiation efficiency.

Table 3
Figures of merits of the mm-wave 5G MIMO antenna arrays for 5G networks.

Ref. Antenna type No. of Ground size* mm3 10 dB-BW, Max. Rad. Min. ECC
Ports GHz gain, dBi efficiency, % isolation, dB
[29] Metallic-based PIFA antenna 3 20.26
10.26
0.321 27.73–28.54 6.06 98 13 0.0006
1.87k 0
0.95k 0
0.03k 0
[30] Metallic-based patch antenna 4 26
19.25
0.79 26.1–30.2 7.58 86.37 20 0.004
2.26k 0
1.676k 0
0.07k 0 37.3–39.3 5.72 88.62
[31] Metallic-based dipole antenna 4 48
31
0.254 26–31 10 NA 21 0.0015
4.16k 0
2.69k 0
0.022k 0
[32] Metallic-based slot antenna 2 50
25
1 3–30 NA NA 20 NA
0.5k 0
0.25k 0
0.01k 0
[33] DR-based antenna 2 48
21
0.127 29.7–31.5 7 80 25 0.002
4.75k 0
2.08k 0
0.01k 0
This Work Metallic-based slot antenna 2 53
31.7
3.906 22.5–50 15 >85 20 0.12
(with EBG reflector) 3.97k 0
2.38k 0
0.29k 0
*
k0 is free-space wavelength, calculated at the lowest frequency band for 10 dB-BW.

spacing between array element. However, the antenna still exhi- width of more than 81.7% ranging from 22.5 to beyond 50 GHz
bits good radiation and acceptable diversity performance as shown (10 dB return loss) and offers realized peak gain values of about
in Fig. 15. The simulated realized gain and radiation efficiency of 11.5 and 10.9 dBi and estimated radiation efficiency values of
the complete antenna structure using both CST MWS and HFSS about 95% and 87% at the two considered frequencies of 28 and
simulators with good agreement between them are shown in 38 GHz, respectively. Compact size and acceptable performance
Fig. 18(a) and (b), respectively. Fig. 18(a) shows that the gain varies make the proposed antenna system competitive for upcoming 5G
in the range of 9–15 dBi within the whole operation band (22.5– networks.
50 GHz) which is generally stable. The realized peak gain values
in the boresight direction at 28 and 38 GHz are 11.5 and 10.9
dBi, respectively, while Fig. 18(b) shows that the minimum effi- References
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