A fan-beam array antenna with reflector back for 5 GHz outdoor Wi-Fi applications

This paper introduces a sprout-shaped fan beam linear array antenna for outdoor Wi-Fi access points. The proposal is made up of two main parts which are a linear array and a reflector. The array has been placed on Rogers RT/Duroid 5870 tm with the dimensions of 390 mm × 30 mm × 1.575 mm, and consists of 10 single elements in sprout-shape. The reflector, which is made of FR4-epoxy, is relatively wider with size of 390 × 70 × 1.6 mm³. The proposed antenna has really good simulation results with the wide bandwidth of 590 MHz, the gain of 17.2 dBi and the low side lobe level of -15.4 dB at 5.6 GHz. A prototype has been fabricated and measured to validate the simulation results. It is demonstrated that a good agreement between simulation and measurement has been obtained. The array antenna sample can be a good candidate for 5GHz outdoor Wi-Fi applications.