High-Gain Conical-Beam Planar Antenna for Millimeter-Wave Drone Applications

In this communication, a high-gain planar antenna with a conical beam (CB) is presented for millimeter-wave drone applications. The proposed antenna comprises a vertical monopole and a circular side reflectors. The high-gain CB is achieved by in-phase reflections from the planar annular-distributed side reflectors which is realized by a series of via walls using the printed-circuit-board (PCB) fabrication. The proposed structure was numerically and experimentally demonstrated. Full-wave analysis shows a 10 dB impedance bandwidth (BW) of 26.50–29.96 GHz, corresponding to 12.26% of the fractional BW, whereas the measured data account for 11.6% in the frequency range of 26.63–29.91 GHz. Meanwhile, a maximum peak gain of 8.51 dBi is observed at a beam-pointing angle of 22°, with a high radiation efficiency of 88.3%. Owing to these valuable features of high gain, good CB radiation performance, and simple planar structure, the proposed antenna is a promising candidate for millimeter-wave drone applications.