A Transparent Dual-Polarized Antenna Array for 5G Smartphone Applications

Future 5G applications at mm-wave frequencies require antenna arrays which consume large PCB area. A transparent antenna array in which the radiating elements are made visually transparent and integrated with mobile phone rear glass is proposed as a solution for saving enormous PCB area giving an additional degree of freedom for mobile phone system design engineers. A new antenna array configuration is proposed which consists of dual polarized meshed capacitive fed patch antennas with feed section in mobile phone PCB and radiating patch integrated into mobile phone rear glass. Indium tin oxide is used as the transparent conducting oxide. The radiating patch is meshed to further improve the visual transparency. The antenna array has a 10 dB return loss over 23.5-32 GHz and achieves a minimum realized gain of 12.1 dBi making it suitable for 5G smartphone applications.