Dual-Band Shared-Aperture Multiple Antenna System With Beam Steering for 5G Applications

This brief presents a high-efficiency shared-aperture multiple antenna system. Unlike general shared-aperture antennas, the proposed antenna system with the size of $0.384 {\times } 0.384 {\times } 0.171 {\mathrm {\lambda }} ^{3}$ makes high reuse the aperture in the two respective frequency bands, and the antenna structures of the two bands can each generate positive mutual enhancement for their radiating characteristics in the two bands. The flat Luneburg lens can realize beam steering capability for mm-wave antenna from 25.5 to 29.5 GHz with the gain of 19.3 dBi and improve the wide-angle scanning matching impedance for the Sub-6 GHz antenna from 3.2 to 3.45 GHz with the gain of 6.2 dBi. Meanwhile, as the radiating patch of the Sub-6 GHz antenna, the meta-surface can reduce the focal distance of the lens and maintain the high gain of the mm-wave antenna. Hence, a compact antenna system can achieve beam steering capabilities (up to 112°) in the Sub-6 GHz band and (up to 56°) mm-wave band with high gain, respectively. And the port isolation of the proposed antenna system between two frequency bands is generally better than 25 dB and even up to 40 dB at the Sub-6 GHz band. As reported in the simulated and measured results in a linear array, the antenna system shows good radiating performance with a dual-polarization state. Hence, the proposed multiple antenna system is a good candidate for 5G applications because of the high-efficiency, beam steering with high gain and full 5G band.