A switched-beam millimeter-wave array with MIMO configuration for 5G applications

Abstract

In this work, a switched-beam 2-element multiple-input multiple-output (MIMO) antenna system is proposed at mm-wave bands for 5G applications. The antenna system consists of a 4 × 4 connected slot antennas for each MIMO element forming the connected antenna array (CAA). A feed network based on a Butler matrix is used to excite the CAA, in addition to steer the beam at different locations which enhance the diversity performances. The mm-wave MIMO antenna system operates at 28 GHz with at least −10 dB measured bandwidth of 830 MHz (27.4 GHZ–28.23 GHz). It is fabricated on a commercially available RO3003 substrate with dielectric constant of 3.3 and height of 0.13 mm, respectively. The dimensions of the board are equal to 150 mm3 × 100 mm3 × 0.13 mm3. The proposed design is compact, low profile, and suitable for future 5G-enabled tablet PCs.