Wide Band Dual Polarized Antenna Array for 5G mmWave based massive MIMO Base Station Applications

In this paper, a scalable and package-integrated 2x2 wide band dual polarized stacked patch antenna array developed for 5G mmWave massive MIMO base station applications is presented. The array consists of four identical, separately excited stacked patch elements, which are designed and modeled at 38 GHz frequency band. A single antenna possesses a driven patch, which is vertically stacked to a parasitic element in order to improve the antenna bandwidth and gain. In each array element, two orthogonal stacked vias fed by transmission lines are used to excite the antenna and generate the dual polarization property. Simulated antenna structures were fabricated using Printed Circuit Board (PCB) technology (Astra MT77). Finally, geometrical and electrical measurements of fabricated antennas were carried out, measured results of a single antenna element in the array show very wide bandwidths of approximately 4 GHz and peak gain of 6.5 dBi for both polarization. The couplings between two polarization and between antenna elements in the array are lower than -20 dB in the achieved bandwidth.