Designing a PCB microstrip antenna array for 5G mm-wave frequencies Designing and testing a dual-polarized aperture-coupled microstrip patch antenna for the (26.5-29.5) GHz band

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Examensarbete på kandidatnivå
Bachelor Thesis
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Publicerad
2024
Författare
Eriksson, Simon
Kraamer, Johanna
Bujalla, Per Ingmar
Ali Shah, Syed Ahsan
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Abstract This report presents the development and testing of a dual linearly polarized patch antenna array. The designed antenna covers the frequency range of (26.5-29.5) GHz, which also is known as the 5G NR FR2 n257 band. The antenna went through multiple iterations of simulation in Ansys HFSS, starting with the construction of a single element that then served as a building block for a three element array. After completing the array in HFSS it was sent for manufacturing. The project compares the simulated results to the ones from the tested manufactured array. For the antenna to be effective in a communication scenario, targets were set for various performance aspects including the radiation pattern, total efficiency and scattering parameters (S-parameters). Each element in the array is aperture-coupled, cavity-backed and dual-polarized. The results showed that for a single isolated element, the peak broadside gain was 6.88 dBi for the vertical polarized port and 6.58 dBi for the horizontal polarized port. Moreover, the cross-polarization discrimination was > 14.6 dB, which suggest that it could be used for MIMO applications. It should be noted that these values are taken from the HFSS results as only the array and not the single element was manufactured. The manufactured antenna underwent multiple tests. The S-parameters were measured with a VNA, the radiation pattern was measured in an anechoic chamber and lastly the total efficiency was characterized in a reverberation chamber. All measured and simulated S-parameters achieved the target. Beam steering capabilities were also investigated by phase shifting each elements in post-processing from the accumulated data of the radiation pattern. The test results from the manufactured array follow the simulated ones well in its S-parameters and radiation pattern. The measured total efficiency was above > 75%. Finally, beam steering was achieved with a scanning range of ±44◦ for the simulated data and ±46◦ for the measured data.
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Keywords: 5G, mm-wave, NR, antenna array, beam steering, aperture-coupled, dual polarized, microstrip patch, cavity-backed, linear polarization, beam steering
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