Millimeter‐wave antenna with wide‐scan angle radiation characteristics for MIMO applications

A three‐element quasi Yagi‐Uda antenna array with printed metamaterial surface generated from the array of uniplanar capacitively loaded loop (CLL) unit‐cells printed on the substrate operating in the band 25‐30 GHz is proposed. The metamaterial surface is configured to provide a high‐refractive index to tilt the electromagnetic (EM) beam from the two dipole antennas placed opposite to each other. The metamaterial region focuses the rays from the dipole antenna and hence increases the gain of the individual antennas by about 5 dBi. The antenna elements are printed on a 10 mil substrate with a center to center separation of about 0.5 λ ₀ at 28 GHz. The three‐element antenna covers 25‐30 GHz band with measured return loss of 10 dB and isolation greater than 15 dB between all the three ports. The measured gain of about 11 dBi is achieved for all the antenna elements. The three antenna elements radiate in three different directions and cover a radiation scan angle of 64°.     

A dual‐band dual‐mode microstrip Yagi antenna with quasi‐end‐fire radiation

A dual‐band dual‐mode microstrip Yagi antenna with quasi‐end‐fire radiation patterns is proposed in this paper. It consists of five radiating patches driven by a single slot‐loaded patch placed in the middle. Meanwhile, two slot‐loaded parasitic patches are symmetrically located on two sides of the driven patch, respectively. In the lower band, the five patches involved resonate at TM₀₁ mode. While in the upper band, all the patches resonate at TM₀₂ mode. In order to ensure quasi‐end‐fire radiations in the both bands, four slots are symmetrically etched around the strongest surface currents of each patch resonating at TM₀₂ mode. As a result, the resonant frequency of TM₀₂ mode is decreased dramatically, while the resonant frequency of TM₀₁ mode almost remains unchanged. With these arrangements, the separations between any two of the adjacent patches at their centers satisfy the requirements in design of the microstrip Yagi antenna in both bands, so as to realize the dual‐band dual‐mode microstrip Yagi antenna on a single‐layer substrate. Finally, an antenna prototype is fabricated and tested. The measured results reveal that the dual operating bands of 2.76~2.88 and 4.88~5.03 GHz for |S₁₁| < ?10 dB are satisfactorily achieved. Most importantly, the proposed antenna can indeed realize the quasi‐end‐fire radiation patterns in dual operating bands.     

A broadband quasi‐Yagi array of rectangular loops on LTCC

In this article, a broadband quasi‐Yagi array of rectangular loops using low‐temperature co‐fired ceramic technology is proposed. The antenna is fed by a simple and compact microstrip‐to‐coplanar strip transition, which serves as balun and impedance transformer simultaneously. Four rectangular loops are used to direct the antenna propagation toward the end‐fire direction. Compared with the planar directors in traditional quasi‐Yagi antenna, they can provide better director effect to improve the radiation performance. Furthermore, they act as good impedance matching elements to broaden the bandwidth. The measured results show that the proposed antenna achieves a wide bandwidth of 42% for S₁₁ < ?10 dB (from 26.1 to 40 GHz), better than 12 dB front‐to‐back ratio, smaller than 14 dB cross polarization and an average gain over 6.5 dBi across the operating bandwidth. The antenna occupies a compact size of 8 × 8 × 1 mm³. © 2013 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Int J RF and Microwave CAE 24:196–203, 2014.     

Eighth‐mode SIW based compact high gain leaky‐wave antenna

In this article, a novel electrically small eighth‐mode substrate integrated waveguide (EMSIW) based leaky‐wave antenna (LWA) in planar environment is presented. The proposed antenna uses 1/8th mode SIW resonator which helps to improve compactness of the design while maintaining high gain and increased scanning angle. The proposed SIW cavity is excited by a 50 Ω microstrip line feeding to resonate at dominant TE₁₁₀ mode in X‐band. The dimensions of the resonators are adjusted to keep resonant mode at same frequency. The fabricated prototype is approximately 5λ₀ long. Measured results show that the proposed leaky‐wave antenna is able to operate within frequency range of 8‐10 GHz with beam scanning range of 51° and maximum gain of 13.31 dBi.     

A dual‐polarized low‐profile microstrip patch antenna with U‐ or M‐shaped feed network

In this article, a dual‐polarized low‐profile microstrip patch antenna with U‐ or M‐shaped feed network is presented. The U‐ or M‐shaped feed network is printed on the same layer, which can achieve dual bands (5.3 and 5.8 GHz) and low profile (0.06 λ_g). Dual polarizations and high isolation are realized by making use of a quasi‐cross‐shaped slot feeding. Moreover, the port isolation is better than 25 dB, and the antenna gain is above 8.4 dBi for the two ports. And the cross‐polarization levels in both E and H planes are better than ‐30 dB for the two polarization ports, respectively. The design is suitable for array application in MIMO system. Details of the proposed design and experimental results are presented and well agreed.     

A metallic 3D printed K‐band quasi‐pyramidal‐horn antenna array

A K‐band (18‐27 GHz) antenna array is presented in this article. By deposing the quasi‐pyramidal‐horn upon a print circuit board (PCB), a traveling‐wave quasi‐pyramidal‐horn antenna is formed. Parasitic rings are introduced to decrease the quality factor for an extended bandwidth. The antenna element demonstrates impedance bandwidth 18.6 to 23.3 GHz. The gain is 10.3 dBi at 20.4 GHz with a stable radiation pattern. The impedance bandwidth of a 2 × 2 array is 18.3 to 22.7 GHz, with a maximum gain of 15.2 dBi at 20.4 GHz. The simulated and measured radiation patterns on E‐ and H‐planes at 20.4 GHz agree well. Taking advantage of the 3D printing technology, the quasi‐pyramidal horn is fabricated by selective laser melting using aluminum alloy for time‐saving and process simplicity. The proposed design highlights the hybrid usage of PCB and metallic 3D printing technology in fabricating microwave devices. It is a capable candidate for wireless communication.     

Metasurface‐based low‐profile high‐gain substrate‐integrated Fabry‐Pérot cavity antenna

A metasurface‐based substrate integrated Fabry‐Pérot cavity (FPC) antenna is presented for improved radiation performance associated with the low profile. A novel partially reflective planar (PRS) artificial magnetic conductor (AMC) structure is proposed as the upper reflector of the substrate integrated FP resonant cavity. A microstrip patch antenna is embedded inside the cavity as a feed. The proposed antenna is designed to operate at 9.35 GHz with the maximum realized gain of 14.2 dBi and the overall profile of λ₀/10 (λ₀ is the operating wavelength in free space). The low‐profile performance of the proposed design outperforms any previous substrate‐integrated FPC antenna design with this gain performance. The influences of the FP cavity on the reduction of the antenna profile and the enhancement of the antenna gain are also investigated. Good agreement between the measured and simulated results validates the feasibility of the analysis and design approach.     

Dielectric resonator based two‐port dual band antenna for MIMO applications

This article investigates a dual band multiple input multiple output (MIMO) cylindrical dielectric resonator antenna (cDRA) for WLAN and WiMAX applications. It consists of two symmetrical orthogonally placed radiators. Each radiator is excited through a narrow rectangular aperture with the help of a microstrip line. For higher mode excitation, the proposed structure uses dual segment DRA which apparently looks like stacked geometry. The aperture fed dielectric resonator works as a feed for upper cDRA to generate higher order mode. The presented radiator covers the band between 3.3‐3.8 GHz and 5‐5.7 GHz. The measured isolation is better than 20 dB in the desired band. The average gain and radiation efficiency achieved for the proposed antenna is 6.0 dBi and 85%, respectively at the operating frequency band. In the proposed geometry, broadside radiation patterns are achieved by exciting HEM_11δ and HEM_12δ modes in a stacked geometry. Different MIMO performance parameters (ECC, DG, MEG, and CCL) are also estimated and analyzed. The prototype of proposed antenna is fabricated and tested. The measured outcomes are in good accord with the simulated one.     

A novel microstrip Yagi antenna with an improved end‐fire radiation pattern under operation of the TM20 mode

In this article, a novel microstrip Yagi antenna under operation of the TM₂₀ mode is proposed to obtain an enhanced end‐fire radiation pattern. First, a two‐element microstrip Yagi antenna is theoretically analyzed under different dimensions of the parasitic element. The results demonstrate that the parasitic element can act as either a reflector or director when its size is smaller or larger than the size of the driven patch, respectively. After that, the equivalent magnetic currents and electric fields of the two‐element antenna are formed to provide physical insight into the working principle and radiation performance of the antenna. With these arrangements, an array of four patch elements including one driver, one director, and two reflectors are selected for the antenna design. Unlike the traditional microstrip Yagi operating with the TM₁₀ mode, all the patch elements involved in this design resonate with the TM₂₀ mode, thus effectively enhancing the tilted beam angle toward the desired end‐fire direction on an infinite ground. Finally, the proposed antenna is designed, fabricated and tested. The measured results show that its impedance bandwidth is maintained at approximately 3.3%, ranging from 4.76 to 4.92 GHz. Most importantly, the maximum deviation angle of the antenna is significantly improved to approximately 58° from the broadside direction at the center frequency (4.84 GHz), while maintaining a low profile and compact size.     

Compact high gain half‐mode substrate integrated waveguide cavity antenna using hybrid mode

In this article, a compact fully planar high gain antenna based on half‐mode substrate integrated waveguide (HMSIW) cavity is presented. The design uses a novel configuration of HMSIW cavity with high length to width ratio along with tapered open edge and a pair of slot stub. The high length to width ratio of the cavity helps to excite closely spaced multiple TE^y_m10 cavity modes within comparatively smaller footprint due to use of the HMSIW cavity. These modes combine to give hybrid mode resonance in the cavity which helps to generate a narrow beam high gain radiation pattern of the antenna. The size of the proposed antenna is further reduced and a pair of slot stub is put along the sidewall of the cavity which helps to sustain similar hybrid mode field distribution within much smaller dimension. A size reduction of 76.7% is achieved in the proposed design configuration without degrading much of the gain performance. The proposed antenna resonates at 9.8 GHz with a gain of 7.9 dBi which is much higher than other reported HMSIW cavity antenna. The proposed antenna may find application in point to point communication, short range radar in X band.     

Design of dual‐band microstrip patch antenna with right‐angle triangular aperture slot for energy transfer application

This work focusing on the dual‐band antenna design with rectifying circuit for energy transfer system technology for enhancement gain performance. The air gap technique is applied on this microstrip antenna design work to enhance the antenna gain. The work begins with designing and analyzing the antenna via the CST Microwave Studio software. After validation on acceptable performance in simulation side is obtained, the return loss, S₁₁ of the antenna is measured using vector network analyzer equipment. The rectifier circuit is used to convert the captured signal to DC voltage. This projected dual‐band antenna has successfully accomplished the target on return loss of ?44.707 dB and ?32.163 dB at dual resonant frequencies for 1.8 GHz and 2.4 GHz, respectively. This proposed antenna design benefits in low cost fabrication and has achieved high gain of 6.31 dBi and 7.82 dBi for dual‐band functioning frequencies.     

A dual‐band dual‐polarized end‐loaded quasi‐open‐sleeve dipole antenna with stable pattern for wireless local area network applications

This article presents a dual‐band dual‐polarized end‐loaded quasi‐open‐sleeve dipole antenna (ELQOSDA) with stable radiation patterns for WLAN applications. The ELQOSDA consists of an end‐loaded planar dipole and two parasitic strips. Dual polarization is obtained by two ELQOSDAs perpendicularly crossing, with some parts overlapped. The unidirectional stable radiation patterns are achieved by adding a square resonance ring between the ground plane and antenna. The ring has little influence on antenna performance at the lower frequency, but improves the coupling currents between the ground and antenna at the upper frequency. As a result, satisfactory dual band and broadside radiation performance is obtained. For demonstration, the proposed antenna is implemented. Measured dual‐band 10‐dB impedance bandwidths are 9.4% (2.33‐2.56 GHz) and 33.5% (4.23‐5.93 GHz) in the lower and upper bands, covering the entire WLAN 2.4/5.2/5.8‐GHz bands. Moreover, the measured antenna has a 6.7‐8.1 dBi broadside gain and stable radiation patterns over the whole operating band.     

Design of a compact orthogonal fed self‐diplexing bowtie‐ring slot antenna based on substrate integrated waveguide

In this article, a novel design of compact cavity‐backed slot antenna based on substrate integrated waveguide (SIW) technology is presented for dual‐frequency communication services. A single layer printed circuit board is applied to implement the proposed antenna. The bowtie‐ring slot engraved on the SIW square cavity is excited using two orthogonal microstrip feed lines to operate at two distinct frequencies (6.62 GHz and 11.18 GHz). The proposed antenna allows each of these frequencies to be designed independently. A prototype of the proposed cavity‐backed antenna that radiates at both 6.62 GHz and 11.18 GHz is fabricated and measured. The port isolation better than 29.3 dB is achieved by utilizing the transmission zeros (TZs), which are produced due to the orthogonal feed lines, TE₁₁₀ mode and coupling between the TE₁₂₀ and TE₂₁₀ modes. The measured peak gains of the proposed diplexing antenna are 5.77 dBi and 5.81 dBi at lower and upper resonating frequencies, respectively. The proposed dual‐frequency antenna exhibits the front‐to‐back‐ratio (FTBR) and cross‐polarization level greater than 26 dB and 21 dB, respectively, at both resonating frequencies.     

A TM03 mode reduced side lobe high‐gain printed antenna array in K band for UDN and IoT applications in 5G

A single layer simple feed reduced side lobe gain‐enhanced microstrip antenna array using higher‐order modes is analyzed and designed in this work. The relationship between the relative magnitude of equivalent magnetic currents and directivity are studied. Modal analysis for rectangular patch is considered for broadside and non‐broadside radiation. Comparative investigations on antenna radiation and impedance characteristics for fundamental and higher‐order modes are presented. It is observed that an array can be designed to operate in TM₀₃ mode for enhanced gain with broadside radiation. Parametric optimization is carried out to attain low side lobe level. The proposed theory is validated by designing and fabricating a single layer single feed 2 × 2 microstrip patch array in the K band operating in TM₀₃ mode. The simulated and measured realized gain of the fabricated TM₀₃ mode array is 16.1 and 15.5 dBi, respectively, at 22 GHz with consistent broadside radiation pattern and linear polarization.     

One‐dimensional low‐profile slot‐loaded epsilon‐negative zeroth‐order antenna with improved radiation efficiency

A novel low‐profile slot‐loaded epsilon‐negative (ENG) transmission line (TL) is proposed for efficiency‐improved zeroth‐order resonant antennas. It is demonstrated that the quality factor of the ENG TL‐based zeroth‐order resonator can be remarkably reduced by enlarging the slot size, therefore, a highly efficient radiating resonator can be designed with higher gain at the zeroth‐order frequency. Two one‐dimensional zeroth‐order resonant antennas with identical unit cell size but different unit cell number are fabricated and measured, each of which can realize a monopole‐like radiation pattern at nearly the same frequency. A maximum gain of 1.96 dBi is generated for the electrically small two‐unit‐cell configuration together with an improved efficiency from 57.0% to 69.1%, while the compact four‐unit‐cell antenna can realize a maximum gain of 3.86 dBi with an improved efficiency from 71.0% to 82.4%. © 2012 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Int J RF and Microwave CAE, 2013.     

High‐gain dual‐polarized antenna for ultrawideband applications

In this article, a high‐gain and dual‐polarized antenna with UWB operation is proposed. The antenna is composed of two tapered dipoles as radiating elements, which are arranged orthogonally and fed perpendicularly to achieve polarization diversity. A metallic cavity reflector is placed behind the radiator for high gain radiation entire the operating bandwidth. To validate the design method, an antenna prototype is designed, fabricated, and measured. The measured results demonstrate that the proposed design has good performance with |S₁₁| ≤ ?10 dB and isolation ≥20 dB over a frequency band 3.2‐8.8 GHz, equivalently to about 93.3%. In addition, unidirectional radiation pattern and broadside gain of from 8.1 to 11.8 dBi are obtained across the operating bandwidth.     

A triple‐slotted substrate integrated cavity‐fed 2 × 2 metasurface antenna with wide bandwidth

This article presents a triple‐slotted substrate integrated cavity (SIC)‐fed 2 × 2 metasurface antenna. Three modes can be obtained including TM₁₀ mode of the metasurface, TE₂₁₀, mode and TE₃₁₀ mode of the SIC. The TE₂₁₀ mode of SIC radiates through the two side slots and is coupled to the metasurface mainly by the two side slots, while the TE₃₁₀ mode of SIC is mainly coupled to the metasurface by the middle slot. Comparing with the reported SIC‐backed slot antenna, dual‐slotted SIC‐fed patch antenna or the metasurface antenna, the proposed antenna exhibits the advantage of wide bandwidth with flat gain. One prototype operated at 10 GHz was fabricated and measured with 10‐dB fractional bandwidth of 33%, the gain of 8.1 dBi at the center frequency, the cross polarization level of 20 dB and the gain ripple of 1.5 dB.     

Broadband compact CPW‐fed metasurface antenna for SAR‐based portable imaging system

A broadband and compact coplanar waveguide (CPW) coupled‐fed metasurface (MS)‐based antenna for C‐band synthetic aperture radar (SAR) imaging application is proposed in this article, which is consisted of 16 uniform periodic square patches performed as radiators. The CPW feeding structure gives two following functions: (1) It excites an aperture coupling slot structure underneath the center of MS patch array. (2) It acts as a ground plane for the metasurface patch units. Different slots were investigated and eventually an hourglass‐shaped slot is applied to enhance bandwidth for imaging applications. A prototype with a dimension of 60 × 60 × 1.524 mm³ (1.1λ₀ × 1.1λ₀ × 0.03λ₀) operating at the center frequency 5.5 GHz (f₀) has been fabricated and measured to verify the design principle. This antenna has a measured impedance bandwidth of 12.4% from 5.14 to 5.82 GHz, a peak gain of 9.2 dBi and averaged gain of 7.2 dBi at broadside radiation. Microwave imaging experiments using the proposed antenna have been carried out and a good performance is achieved.     

Compact tri‐band MIMO antenna based on quarter‐mode slotted substrate‐integrated‐waveguide cavity

A compact tri‐band multiple‐input‐multiple‐output (MIMO) antenna based on a quarter‐mode slotted substrate‐integrated‐waveguide (SIW) cavity is proposed. By etching a wide slot, a single SIW cavity is divided into two sub‐cavities with the same size. They are fed by coaxial ports to form two MIMO elements and high antenna isolation can be achieved by this slot. To obtain multi‐band operations, two narrow slots are cut in the upper sub‐cavity and the other two slots are etched in the lower sub‐cavity. Three eighth‐mode resonances with different areas can simultaneously occur in these antenna elements. A prototype with the overall size of 0.34λ₀ × 0.34λ₀ has been fabricated. The measured center frequencies of three operating bands are 2.31, 2.91, and 3.35 GHz, respectively. The measured gain at above frequencies is 4.52, 4.29, and 4.57 dBi, respectively. Moreover, the measured isolation is higher than 16.7 dB within the frequency of interest.     

Bandwidth and gain‐enhanced composite right/left‐handed antenna for ultra‐wideband applications

A coplanar waveguide‐fed metamaterial antenna is presented for ultra‐wideband (UWB) applications. The proposed antenna is designed with single unit‐cell composite right/left‐handed transmission line (CRLH‐TL) loaded with a split‐ring resonator (SRR). The UWB characteristic is obtained by merging the zeroth‐order resonance of CRLH‐TL with two additional resonances due to the ground plane and SRR respectively. Subsequently, a partial reactive impedance surface is embedded on the rear side of the proposed antenna to enhance the realized gain without affecting the UWB response. The overall size of the antenna is 0.241λ_o x 0.267λ_o x 0.013λ_o (28.8 x 32 x 1.6 mm³), where λ_o is the free space wavelength at 2.51 GHz. The measured results indicate –10 dB fractional bandwidth of 139.19% (2.51‐14 GHz) with realized gains of 2.3, 4.6, and 6 dBi at the resonant frequencies 4, 7.84, and 10.29 GHz respectively. The measured peak realized gain is 6.6 dBi at 10.6 GHz. The radiation efficiency is above 63.85% for the entire UWB range with a peak value of 86.84%. A fairly stable group delay with variation within 1 ns is obtained throughout the operating frequency band. A good agreement has been observed between the measured and simulated results.