Scan Properties of Slot-Fed Dielectric Resonator Antenna Arrays for 5G Wireless Communications

An 8×8 array antenna based on dielectric resonator antennas (DRA) fed by a slot antennas is proposed as a base-station antenna for millimeter-wave 5G wireless communications. The total radiation efficiency is modeled as a function of frequency and beam steering. It turns out that the total radiation efficiency is higher than 80% over the frequency band from 26 GHz to 34 GHz and for scan angles up to 60 degrees along the H-plane. The DRA can perform beam steering over wide bandwidth with a scan-loss comparable to the array factor of an ideal source. In addition, The DRA array is 20% smaller in size compared to conventional half-spaced antenna arrays.