Ultra-Wideband Phased Array for Millimeter-Wave ISM and 5G Bands, Realized in PCB

• Published in: IEEE transactions on antennas and propagation Vol. 66; no. 12; pp. 6930 - 6938
• Main Authors: Novak, Markus H., Miranda, Felix A., Volakis, John L.
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: New York IEEE 01-12-2018; The Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers, Inc. (IEEE)
• Subjects: 5G mobile communication; Antenna arrays; Bandwidth; Broadband; Circuit boards; Fabrication; Feeds; Fifth generation (5G); millimeter wave; Millimeter waves; Phased arrays; planar arrays; Printed circuits; Simulation; Substrates; ultra-wideband (UWB) antennas; Ultrawideband
• ISSN: 0018-926X; 1558-2221
• DOI: 10.1109/TAP.2018.2872177

In this paper, we present the design, fabrication, and measurement of an ultra-wideband phased array antenna, with continuous coverage of all six allocated fifth generation and industrial, scientific, medical bands in the millimeter-wave spectrum. Of importance is that the complete array is co-fabricated as a single printed circuit board using commercial processes, implying a significant reduction in cost over previous microfabrication-based designs. The design is demonstrated in simulation to operate across 24-72 GHz with VSWR<2.2 at broadside and VSWR<3 for ±45° scanning in all planes. These simulations are validated through the fabrication and measurement of a <inline-formula> <tex-math notation="LaTeX">3\times 3 </tex-math></inline-formula> array prototype, which shows close agreement to the simulated values.