Millimeter-Wave MultiBeam Aperture-Coupled Magnetoelectric Dipole Array With Planar Substrate Integrated Beamforming Network for 5G Applications

A modified topology of the 2-D multibeam antenna array fed by a passive beamforming network (BFN) is proposed by introducing two sets of vertical interconnections into the conventional array configuration. Different from the traditional design, the new array structure can be integrated into multilayered planar substrates conveniently, which has advantages of low loss characteristics, ease of realization, and low fabrication cost for millimeter-wave (mmWave) applications. A 4 x 4 multibeam antenna array that can generate 16 beams is then designed, fabricated, and measured in order to demonstrate the correctness of the proposed topology. As the crucial components of the design, two kinds of aperture-coupled magnetoelectric dipole antenna elements with multilayered feed structures and three types of vertical interconnections consisting of the vertical substrate integrated waveguides are investigated, respectively. Wide bandwidth of 16.4%, stable radiation beams, and gain up to 14.7 dBi are achieved by the fabricated prototype. The proposed array configuration provides a new mean to implement the relatively large size 2-D multibeam antenna arrays with planar passive BFNs, which would be attractive for future mmWave wireless systems used for 5G communications and other applications.