Estimating direction-of-arrival in a 5G hot-spot scenario using a 60 GHz leaky-wave antenna

A novel direction of arrival (DoA) estimation system based on a PCB substrate-integrated waveguide (SIW) leaky-wave antenna (LWA) is presented. The antenna provides high broadside efficiency and low return loss in the frequency range of operation from 50 to 70 GHz. The antenna consists of an array of SIW fed microstrip antennas and can be fabricated through cost-effective PCB processes. The proposed scheme only requires a low-cost passive LWA antenna and is thus much more cost and power efficient when compared to the traditional DoA estimation techniques based on phased array antennas, which also require a high processing gain. One power detector is utilized to estimate the DoA by measuring the received power at the LWA port. This technique has a coverage range of +/- 8 degrees and can be employed to estimate received signal DoA of a mobile user which is up to 1 m away from the receiver. An experimental measurement for the proposed DoA estimation technique is presented along with the LWA radiation pattern.