Broadband Printed-Dipole Antenna and Its Arrays for 5G Applications

In this letter, we propose a broadband printed-dipole antenna and its arrays for fifth-generation (5G) wireless cellular networks. To realize a wide frequency range of operation, the proposed antenna is fed by an integrated balun, which consists of a folded microstrip line and a rectangular slot. For compactness, the printed dipole is angled at 45°. The single-element antenna yields an |S
₁₁
| <;-10-dB bandwidth of 36.2% (26.5-38.2 GHz) and a gain of 4.5-5.8 dBi. We insert a stub between two printed-dipole antennas and obtain a low mutual coupling of <;-20 dB for a 4.8-mm center-to-center spacing (0.42-0.61 λ at 26-38 GHz). We demonstrate the usefulness of this antenna as a beamforming radiator by configuring 8-element linear arrays. Due to the presence of the stubs, the arrays resulted in a wider scanning angle, a higher gain, and a lower sidelobe level in the low-frequency region.