High Gain Beam Steering Antenna Arrays with Low Scan Loss for mmWave Applications

Anil Kumar Yerrola; Maifuz Ali; Ravi Kumar Arya; Lakhindar Murmu; Ashwani Kumar

doi:10.14429/dsj.72.17318

Anil Kumar Yerrola International Institute of Information Technology, Naya Raipur, Chhattisgarh 493661 https://orcid.org/0000-0001-9833-4516
Maifuz Ali International Institute of Information Technology, Naya Raipur - 493 661 https://orcid.org/0000-0003-0196-5392
Ravi Kumar Arya National Institute of Technology Delhi, New Delhi - 110 016 India https://orcid.org/0000-0003-0724-8060
Lakhindar Murmu International Institute of Information Technology, Naya Raipur, Chhattisgarh 493661 https://orcid.org/0000-0003-2335-8489
Ashwani Kumar School of Engineering, Jawaharlal Nehru University, Delhi - 110 067, India https://orcid.org/0000-0002-7536-6141

DOI: https://doi.org/10.14429/dsj.72.17318

Keywords: Microstrip antenna, Conformal antenna array, Phased array, Superstrate, Beam steering, Beam scanning

Abstract

In millimeter-wave (mmWave) communications, the antenna gain is a crucial parameter to overcome path loss and atmospheric attenuation. This work presents the design of two cylindrical conformal antenna arrays, made of modified rectangular microstrip patch antenna as a radiating element, working at 28 GHz for mmWave applications providing high gain and beam steering capability. The microstrip patch antenna element uses Rogers RO4232 substrate with a thickness of 0.5 mm and surface area of 5.8 mm × 5.8 mm. The individual antenna element provides a gain of 6.9 dBi with return loss bandwidth of 5.12 GHz. The first antenna array, made by using five conformal antenna elements, achieves a uniform gain of approximately 12 dBi with minimal scan loss for extensive scan angles. In the second antenna array, a dielectric superstrate using Rogers TMM (10i) was used to modify the first antenna array. It enhanced the gain to approximately 16 dBi while still maintaining low scan loss for wide angles. The proposed array design method is very robust and can be applied to any conformal surface. The mathematical equations are also provided to derive the array design, and both array designs are verified by using full-wave simulations.