Cost-Effective High-Performance Air-Filled SIW Antenna Array for the Global 5G 26 GHz and 28 GHz Bands

A cost-effective, compact, and high-performance antenna element for beamforming applications in all fifth-generation (5G) New Radio bands the [24.25–29.5] $ \,$ GHz spectrum is proposed this letter. The novel topology adopts a square patch, an edge-plated air-filled cavity, hourglass-shaped aperture-coupled feed to achieve very high efficiency over wide frequency band compact footprint ( notation="LaTeX">$\boldsymbol{{0.48} \lambda _0 \times \text{0.48}\lambda _0}$ ). Its compliance with standard printed circuit board (PCB) fabrication technology, without complex multilayer PCB stack, ensures low-cost fabrication. feedplane offers platform integration of active electronic circuitry. Two different modular 1 \boldsymbol{\times }$ 4 arrays were realized demonstrate its suitability broadband multiantenna systems. Measurements fabricated array prototypes revealed notation="LaTeX">$-$ 10 dB impedance bandwidth 7.15 (26.8%) 8.2 (30.83%), respectively. stand-alone features stable peak gain 7.4 \,\pm 0.6 dBi measured total at least 85%. × provides 10.1 0.7 enables grating-lobe-free beamsteering from notation="LaTeX">${-}\text{50}^\circ$ \text{50}^\circ$ .