SIGW Based Array of Hexagonal Slot Antennas for Sub-6 Cellular LTE/5G Applications

This article is devoted to design, analysis and fabrication of an array of hexagonal slot antennas fed through Substrate Integrated Gap Waveguide (SIGW) divider configuration. The structure provides low dispersion, low loss antenna with high gain. Two dielectric material are used for implementation, Roger RO 4350c is used for the bottom layer of the SIGW structure. This layer includes the divider of branched ridge structure surrounded with periodic vias to confine the wave propagation over the ridge. The second layer is the top one, includes the top ground in which the slot antennas are etched. The structure is analyzed using the Finite Deference Time Domain (FDTM) analysis (CST microwave studio). It provides a triple band for Sub-6 Cellular LTE/5G Applications. It operates at 5.9, 6 and 6.1414 GHz with reasonable gain. It is fabricated using PCB technology and measured using vector network analyzer which finding reasonable agreement between the measured and simulated reflection coefficients. The antenna achieves a reasonable gain for the adopted applications.