Planar microstrip series-fed array for 5G applications with beamforming capabilities

Abstract

The next generation of mobile networks aim to allow an ubiquitous connection between hundreds different devices, improving the main properties in higher orders of magnitude, such as the capacity, coverage, connectivity, efficiency, among others. New challenges are put to the RF part, namely on the antennas, composed of dozens of radiating elements, whose beamforming abilities is a crucial property, combined with the reduced sizes and higher gains. In this work, a modular planar microstrip array is presented, designed for the 28GHz frequency band, in a 4×4 configuration, with capability to be connected to a RF front-end allowing beamforming. This antenna has small dimensions being a solution for applications of the next 5G networks.