Single- and Dual-Polarized 22-46 GHz Multiband Phased Arrays for 5G MIMO

• Published in: IEEE transactions on antennas and propagation Vol. 73; no. 9; pp. 6263 - 6275
• Main Authors: Liang, Tian, Wang, Shufan, Alhamed, Abdulrahman, Rebeiz, Gabriel M.
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: New York IEEE 01.09.2025; The Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers, Inc. (IEEE)
• Subjects: 5G mobile communication; Antenna; Antenna arrays; Antennas; Artificial intelligence; beamformer; Beamforming; Broadband antennas; Circuit boards; Data mining; Dipole antennas; Dipoles; Doppler effect; dual-polarization; fifth-generation (5G) communications; Gain; millimeter wave; MIMO communication; multimode antenna; Multimode resonators; phased array; Phased arrays; Polarization; Quadrature amplitude modulation; split-ring resonator (SRR); Training; Wideband
• ISSN: 0018-926X; 1558-2221
• DOI: 10.1109/TAP.2025.3569378

This article presents wideband single- and dual-polarized phased arrays for multiband 5G systems. The antenna element incorporates a dipole-fed split-ring multimode resonator, enabling continuous operation in the 22-46 GHz (N257-N261 bands). The antenna is fabricated using a low-cost printed-circuit board, which facilitates interconnection with the TX/RX beamformer. For demonstration, the single-polarized antenna is employed in an <inline-formula> <tex-math notation="LaTeX">8\times 8 </tex-math></inline-formula> phased array, while the dual-polarized antenna is implemented in a <inline-formula> <tex-math notation="LaTeX">4\times 2 </tex-math></inline-formula> phased array. Post-calibration measurements show that the single-polarized <inline-formula> <tex-math notation="LaTeX">8\times 8 </tex-math></inline-formula> phased array exhibits an EIRP of 42-48 dBm and a scanning capability exceeding 55° at 22-46 GHz, which is ideal for customer premises equipment (CPE) application. The dual-polarized phased array achieves a saturated EIRP of 23-32 dBm at 21-44 GHz for each polarization. The high polarization isolation supports <inline-formula> <tex-math notation="LaTeX">2\times 2 </tex-math></inline-formula> multiple-input multiple-output (MIMO) applications. System-level measurements were conducted using 5G-NR and 64 QAM modulation at 400 Mbaud. The dipole-fed split-ring resonator (SRR) antenna offers the broadest operational bandwidth among single- and dual-polarized planar phased array designs, making it a strong candidate for multistandard 5G applications.