A Differentially-Fed Transmission-Line-Excited Magnetoelectric Dipole Antenna Array for 5G Applications

A differentially-driven transmission-line-excited (TLE) magneto-electric dipole (ME-dipole) is designed for 5G applications. The proposed antenna, realized using a single-layered printed-circuit-board (PCB) with plated-through-hole technology, is simple in configuration yet can achieve wide bandwidth and high gain. The antenna is composed of a 2×2 ME-dipole array surrounded by a rectangular cavity. A differential feed waveguide network based on an E-plane tee is also introduced to feed the prototype for measurements. Measurements show that the proposed antenna with the differential feed network can present an impedance bandwidth of 29.2% from 52.6 to 70.6 GHz with a broadside gain from 10.9 to 13.7 dBi. The proposed antenna retains all the salient features of ME-dipole in symmetric radiation patterns and relatively low cross-polarization and back radiation levels. The radiation patterns are mostly stable with the sidelobes increases toward the higher end of the operating band.