Metamaterial-inspired Flat-Antenna Design for 5G Small-cell Base-Stations Operating at 3.6 GHz

In this paper, a flat-beamsteering antenna for 5G applications is being presented. The antenna, designed to operate at 3.6 GHz (5G new radio (NR) frequency range 1 (FR1) band n78), presents a unique flat form factor which allows easy deployment and low visual impact in 5G dense scenarios. The antenna presents a multi-layer structure where a metamaterial inspired transmitarray enables the two-dimensional (2D) beamsteering, and an array of microstrip patch antennas is utilised as RF source. The use of metamaterials for beamsteering control allows for the reduction of costly and complex phase-shifter networks by using discrete capacitor diodes to control the transmission phase-shifting and subsequently, the direction of the steering. According to simulations, the proposed antenna presents 13.9 dBi of gain, 100 MHz of bandwidth with a maximum steering range of ±20 degrees, achievable in both elevation and azimuth planes, independently.