Design of mmWave Directional Antenna for Enhanced 5G Broadcasting Coverage

• Main Authors: Tao Hong, Shuli Zheng, Rongke Liu, Weiting Zhao
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: MDPI AG 2021-01-01
• Series: Sensors
• Subjects: 5G broadcasting; mmWave; tunnel; SIW horn antenna; MOGA
• Online Access: https://www.mdpi.com/1424-8220/21/3/746

5G mmWave broadcasting is considered to be the main method of future broadcasting. However, the mmWave transmission has a large space loss, especially in tunnels. In order to compensate for the attenuation of the broadcast signal, a directional horn antenna is designed in this paper. Substrate integrated waveguide (SIW) technology, dual-element arrays and extension structures are used to improve the antenna structure and achieve good directional characteristics. The multi-objective genetic algorithm (MOGA) is used to optimize the antenna parameters and improve optimization efficiency. Ultimately, the whole antenna was 28.2 mm in length and 28.6 mm in width, and the FR4 material, with a relative permittivity of 4.4, was used as a dielectric plate. The maximum gain of the antenna is 8.06 dB, and the bandwidth with gain greater than 6.5 dB is nearly 2 GHz. Antenna performance simulation and test results show that the extended semicircular structure is beneficial in enhancing the directional radiation of the antenna. This provides a reference method for directional antennas applied to 5G millimeter wave bands to increase gain and narrow beams.