Electronically beam switched conformal microstrip array antenna for 5G applications

Abstract

This article presents an electronically beam-switching conformal microstrip array antenna for 5G applications. The 1 Â 2 array microstrip antenna is used as a radiating element. They are placed on a hexagonal shape-holding structure to form the conformal geometry. The radiating elements are excited with a six-faced feeding network. It consists of one 3-way power divider and two 2-way power dividers. These power dividers (PDs) are serially connected and formed a six-faced regular structure with 12 output ports. To obtain the beam switching mechanism, the uniform PD is then loaded with RF switched PD. Six angular separation beams (Sectors I-VI) are obtained (each 60 ) with RF switches (1 SP3T and 3 SPDT). The response of the feed network is verified experimentally with a conformal array structure. The impedance bandwidth is well below À10 dB and measured for all switched sectors. The measured isolation among different output ports of the device is below À20 dB. The simple microstrip design technique makes the device suitable for beam switching in a large array configuration for 5G applications.

Design of a Novel Microstrip Ultra-Wideband Power Divider for WLAN and Sub-6 GHz 5G Applications

“…The power divider is designed to divide or combine power to meet the design requirements of new transceiver technologies [5][6][7][8][9]. The Wilkinson power splitter/combiner splits the power of the received signal from the input port P1 into two identical parts at its output ports P2 and P3 using quarter-wave transformers and a 100Ω resistor for isolation or combines the power received by both ports P2 and P3 to produce the summed power in port P1.…”