Compact size enhanced gain switched beam conformal antipodal tapered slot antenna system for 5G MIMO wireless communication

This paper presents a conformal antipodal tapered slot antennas (ATSAs) system designed for future fifth generation (5G) wireless communications. A compact size (25×30 mm2) ATSA element is designed presenting the reflection coefficient value less than -10 dB over a wide spectrum covering 14.8 GHz to 40 GHz frequency band. The multiple-input multiple-output (MIMO) antenna system comprises of four ATSAs. Antenna elements are placed at 90 degree apart from each other over a small size cylinder having 12 mm radius. The conformal ATSAs are loaded with dielectric lens for gain enhancement. Optimized dimensions of dielectric lens are obtained by several full wave simulations resulting a gain value more than 20 dBi from 24 GHz to 40 GHz. The proposed system presents four orthogonal independent beams switched at the angle of ±14 degree along the co-ordinate axis. Envelop correlation coefficient (ECC) and diversity gain (DG) have been calculated to be used in “Kronecker” channel model. Compared to single-input single-output (SISO) system, the proposed switched beam 4×4 MIMO antenna system exhibits 13 bits/sec/Hz increase in channel's capacity.