A Beam-Steerable Antenna Array with Radiation Beam Reconfigurability for 5G Smartphones

摘要

A radiation-beam switchable phased array antenna is proposed for 5G mobile terminals. The design consists of eight discrete-fed slot radiators placed at the top edge of the mobile phone PCB. The configuration of the antenna element is composed of an I-shaped slot radiator with a single director. By implementing and biasing RF switches (D$_{1} & {D}_{2}$) across the I-shaped slot radiators of the main design, the radiation beams of the phased array can be switched from end-fire to broad-side radiation modes. The proposed design can provide a 2 GHz impedance-bandwidth with S$_{11}le$-10 dB at 28 GHz (5G candidate band) and generates high-gain radiation beams in both end-fire and broad-side modes. Fundamental characteristics of the design in terms of S-parameters, radiation patterns, efficiency, and antenna gain are investigated. The obtained results showed promising performance of the array under different states of the switches.