Wideband and Large Coverage Continuous Beam Steering Antenna in the 60-GHz Band

A wideband and continuous beam steering flat antenna is proposed in the 60-GHz band. The antenna consists of two layers and is made of two parts: 1) a feeding network and 2) a slotted plate. The relative rotation movement between the two antenna parts generates a phase gradient across the radiating part, and a continuous beam is generated in the upper hemisphere. The mechanical movement between the two antenna parts is facilitated by the use of gap waveguides; therefore, no electrical contact is needed between the two metallic parts. To validate the antenna concept, an antenna has been designed and fabricated in the 60-GHz band. Good agreement has been obtained between the simulations and the measurements. The antenna field of view is up to ±60°. The antenna bandwidth is up to 13% for VSWR <2. The loss within the antenna structure is estimated to be around 0.86 dB.

[1]  Theodore S. Rappaport,et al.  Millimeter Wave Mobile Communications for 5G Cellular: It Will Work! , 2013, IEEE Access.

[2]  R. Sauleau,et al.  Multibeam Pillbox Antenna With Low Sidelobe Level and High-Beam Crossover in SIW Technology Using the Split Aperture Decoupling Method , 2015, IEEE Transactions on Antennas and Propagation.

[3]  Jeffrey G. Andrews,et al.  What Will 5G Be? , 2014, IEEE Journal on Selected Areas in Communications.

[4]  P. Kildal.  Definition of artificially soft and hard surfaces for electromagnetic waves , 1988 .

[5]  Nathan Marcuvitz.  Waveguide Handbook , 1951 .

[6]  M. Ando,et al.  Dual-Layer Ridged Waveguide Slot Array Fed by a Butler Matrix With Sidelobe Control in the 60-GHz Band , 2015, IEEE Transactions on Antennas and Propagation.

[7]  A. A. Kishk,et al.  Narrow-Band Microwave Filter Using High-Q Groove Gap Waveguide Resonators With Manufacturing Flexibility and No Sidewalls , 2012, IEEE Transactions on Components, Packaging and Manufacturing Technology.

[8]  Eva Rajo-Iglesias,et al.  Design and experimental verification of ridge gap waveguide in bed of nails for parallel-plate mode suppression , 2011 .

[9]  Helmut Bölcskei,et al.  An overview of MIMO communications - a key to gigabit wireless , 2004, Proceedings of the IEEE.

[10]  Dimitris Psychoudakis,et al.  Millimeter-wave base station for mobile broadband communication , 2015, 2015 IEEE MTT-S International Microwave Symposium.

[11]  Koichi Ogawa,et al.  A Variable Phase Shifter Using a Movable Waffle Iron Metal Plate and Its Applications to Phased Array Antennas , 2008, IEICE Trans. Commun..

[12]  E. Rajo-Iglesias,et al.  Local Metamaterial-Based Waveguides in Gaps Between Parallel Metal Plates , 2009, IEEE Antennas and Wireless Propagation Letters.

[13]  Juan Liu,et al.  Design of a Variable Inclination Continuous Transverse Stub Array , 2018, 2018 12th International Symposium on Antennas, Propagation and EM Theory (ISAPE).

[14]  S. Silver.  Microwave antenna theory and design , 1949 .

[15]  Miao Zhang,et al.  Reduction of Long Line Effects in Single-Layer Slotted Waveguide Arrays With an Embedded Partially Corporate Feed , 2010, IEEE Transactions on Antennas and Propagation.

[16]  B. Johannisson.  Adaptive base station antennas for mobile communication systems , 1998, 1998 IEEE-APS Conference on Antennas and Propagation for Wireless Communications (Cat. No.98EX184).