Demonstration of Millimeter Wave 5G Setup Employing High-Gain Vivaldi Array

Abstract

We present a 4 × 4 slot-coupled Vivaldi antenna (SCVA) array unit cell, which offers wide bandwidth and high gain (~23 dBi) at the millimeter wave (mmW) frequencies of 28 GHz and 38 GHz. A single SCVA element is first presented, which has a bandwidth of 25-40 GHz with an average gain of~13 dBi at the frequencies of interest. This antenna element is then used to design a 1 × 4 linear SCVA array matched to a 50 Ω impedance via a modified Wilkinson power divider (WPD). Next, the 1 × 4 linear array is used to construct a 4 × 4 antenna array unit cell. The proposed 4 × 4 antenna array unit cell is fabricated, and the characteristics of its elements (i.e., the single SCVA, 1 × 4 linear array, and WPD) are thoroughly investigated. Further, the 4 × 4 array is tested for signal reception of various digital modulation formats at lab environment using high-speed digital signal oscilloscope. In particular, a 2.5 Gbps data rate is successfully transmitted achieving receiver sensitivity of −50 dBm at 2 × 10 −3 bit error rate (BER) for 32 quadrature amplitude modulation (QAM) with a system baud rate of 500 MHz. The wide bandwidth and high gain along with the excellent performance of the proposed 4 × 4 antenna array unit cell makes it an excellent candidate for future 5G wireless communication applications.

A Review of Antenna Array Technologies for Point-to-Point and Point-to-Multipoint Wireless Communications at Millimeter-Wave Frequencies

“…e state-of-the-art overview provided in the previous sections gives a flavor of the wide variety of existing antenna concepts available in the literature; each of them characterized by different performance, benefits, and limitations. For mm-wave applications, ease of fabrication and a high Lens [75] DRA [79] Rings [80] GDRA [83] GDRA [84] Horn [85] Vivaldi [86] SIW horn [88] Horn + lens [89] Stacked patch [90] Slots [91] Gap waveguide [92] Resonant cavity [93] International Journal of Antennas and Propagation level of integration are key. It is not uncommon that a specific antenna technology is chosen mainly on the basis of manufacturing costs and integration constraints even if that results in largely suboptimal RF characteristics such as gain, efficiency, and bandwidth.…”

A 32 element circular-shaped corporate feed antenna array for millimeter-wave femtocells

“…For 5G mobile communications, a circular-shaped elliptical slot dual-band four-element patch antenna is proposed and the measured radiation pattern of the proposed array antenna was not discussed [6]. A 16element slot-coupled Vivaldi antenna array unit cell at the mm-wave frequencies of 28 GHz and 38 GHz is designed which offers high gain and bandwidth but includes complex construction of antenna [7]. A microstrip circular patch antenna with a modified Lshaped aperture slot that is coupled to a microstrip feedline is proposed [8].…”

Dual-Band Dual-Linear Polarization Reflectarray for mmWaves/5G Applications

“…As a matter of the fact, the unlicensed/underutilized mmw frequency bands provide great amount of available spectrum resources that can support the requirements for high data rate and low latency [1]- [3]. Conversely, mmw technology requires high gain antenna systems [4]- [6] to compensate for the intrinsic higher path loss, mainly due to the atmospheric absorption of electromagnetic waves at higher frequencies. To this end, microstrip reflectarrays could represent a very attractive solution for designing high gain antennas for 5G systems [7], [8].…”