Circular Dipole Array with Omnidirectional and Beamsteering Capabilities for 5G Communications in the Sub-6GHz Range

The design of a dipole antenna array with beamsteering capabilities as well as omnidirectional
performance in the US 5G Sub 6-GHz band is reported.
The single radiating element consists on a planar dipole formed by printing two arms back to back on
a circular substrate.
The proposed circular antenna array is composed of four dipoles with four open circuit used as
switches. The pattern reconfigurablity is achieved by controlling the switching states. The design
processes are presented and the structure is optimized and simulated. According to the simulated
results, seven modes with a global matching bandwidth of 180MHz (S11<10dB) can be selected with
high peak gain of 6dBi and good total efficiency of 89% of The omnidirectional radiation and
beamsteered directional patterns (covering 360°) can be electronically tuned depending on the
working states. The comparison to other state-of-the-art antennas shows that the proposed
reconfigurable array has a compact size, high gain and easy to design. This proposed antenna is well
suitable for future 5G sub-6GHz 5G compact base station.