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A Dual-band mm-wave 5G antenna

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5G antenna simulation

The demand for high speed for mobile communication is rapidly growing. The amount of mobile data has exploded throughout the years due to the availability of smart handheld devices, which support broadband wireless applications such as multimedia and interactive gaming. To meet these needs, the research and development of fifth generation (5G) antenna is already underway. This article shows the workflow and simulation features in HFWorks, that enable antenna engineers to envision and design fifth generation mobile antennas. In this article, the simulation of a Dual-Band mm-wave antenna is presented.

Solidworks 5G antenna model

Figure1 - 3D model of Dual Band antenna for 5G applications

Figure 1 shows the antenna which consists of a square patch that comprises L-shaped slots close to the patch edges. This arrangement adds capacitive and inductive effects, which results in two distinct and desirable resonant mm-wave frequencies: 28 GHz and 38 GHz. The antenna is simulated using RT/Duroid with a relative permittivity of 2.2 and dielectric loss tangent of 0.0009. The structure is excited with a micro strip feed line of 0.2mm width to obtain an impedance of 100 Ohms. The electrical parameters of a structure like the one in this example can be calculated using ATLASS [1].

The geometrical parameters of the antenna (L1, L2, t1, t2, t3, t4, t5, Lf, Wf and Df) are defined in a file and they are imported into SolidWorks as equations to facilitate the parametric workflow. Figure 2 shows the main dimensions of the antenna.

Figure2 - Schematic diagram (top and side view) of the main geometrical parameters of the mm-Wave patch antenna

Variable	Value
L1	3.1
L2	2.5
t1	0.1
t2	2.7
t3	0.4
t4	0.4
t5	0.5
Lf	1.5
Wf	0.2
Df	0.9

Table1 - The list of dimensions imported into SolidWorks

S-Parameters of the 5G antenna

Figure 3 shows the results of S-Parameters of the patch antenna simulated using HFWorks and the measured results [2]. The resonant frequencies were found at 27.375GHz with a reflection coefficient of -29.87dB and at 37.125 GHz with a reflection coefficient of -16.39 dB, respectively.

Return loss of the mm-wave antenna (a) measured results

Figure 3-a

Figure3-b

Figure 3 - Return loss of the mm-wave antenna (a) measured results, (b) simulated results using HFWorks

Gain of the 5G antenna

The far field simulation shows the distribution of the field around the model at a distance from the structure. Figure 4 (a) illustrates the gain pattern in a 3D format at the first resonance frequency of 27.375 GHz, and Figure 4 (b) shows the same gain pattern in a 2D format.

3D plot of gain pattern at 27.375GHz
Figure 4-a

2D plot of gain pattern at 27.375GHz
Figure 4-b

Figure 4 - (a) 3D plot of gain pattern at 27.375GHz, (b) 2D plot of gain pattern at 27.375GHz

Conclusion

In this article, a mm-wave antenna for 5G applications is simulated using HFWorks and compared to measured data [2]. The resonance frequencies were found to be 27.375GHz and 37.125 GHz. The various graphs show a good agreement between measurement and simulated results obtained by HFWorks.

References

[1] https://www.emworks.com/product/ATLASS
[2] Menna El Shorbagyl, Raed M. Shubair, Mohamed I. AIHajri , Nazih Khaddaj Mallat, ''On the Design of Millimetre-Wave Antennas for 5G '', Microwave Symposium (MMS), 2016 16th Mediterranean, IEEE 2016, pp. 1-4.