60-GHz-Band Switched-Beam Eight-Sector Antenna with SP8T Switch for 180° Azimuth Scan

This paper proposes a new switched-beam eight-sector antenna for multi-gigabit wireless LAN in the 60-GHz band. Our antenna system introduces access-point (AP) and user-terminal (UT) antennas having the same sec θ pattern in the elevation plane so that the received signal power at the receiver is kept constant, independent of the position of the UT. For this system, an eight-sector antenna, a single-pole eight-throw (SP8T) switch, and a beam control unit are integrated as the switched-beam eight-sector antenna. The specifications of the antenna are wide bandwidth (≥3GHz), high-gain (≥13dBi at θ=66°), and wide coverage area in both azimuth (0° ≤ φ ≤ 180°) and elevation planes (0° ≤ θ ≤ 66°). The antenna beam is steered within the specified response time (which is short) by the Media Access Control (MAC). In our antenna, both high gain for a wide elevation angle and wide bandwidth are obtained by using the proposed closely spaced waveguide slot array antenna, which is used as each sector of the eight-sector antenna. The SP8T switch with the beam control unit enables 180° beam scan in the azimuth plane. In a component evaluation, the eight-sector antenna achieves a 10-dB return loss bandwidth of 8GHz with more than 40-dB port-to-port isolation. Radiation characteristics of the eight-sector antenna indicate that it covers 82% of the entire coverage area at the center frequency and that the coverage rate in the operating frequency band is from 78% to 88%. The performance of the SP8T switch and the beam control unit is verified by measuring the insertion loss at all eight ports and the switching response time. In the antenna system evaluation, measurement by using two prototype antennas as the AP and the UT antennas in the usage condition indicates that the measured received signal power meets the specified constant power for the specified wide elevation angle range, independent of the position of the UT. These experimental results verify the effectiveness of our proposed antenna for multi-gigabit WLAN.