A Wideband Frequency Beam-Scanning Antenna Array for Millimeter-Wave
Industrial Applications
Abstract
In this article, a compact, wideband, and high-gain frequency
beam-scanning planar microstrip series-fed antenna array based on PCB
technology is presented at 60 GHz ISM band with enhanced performance.
First, a wideband 8-element linear antenna array is designed that
provides -10 dB impedance bandwidth of 41.52% (54–82.3 GHz) covering
the entire 60 GHz millimeter-wave (mmWave) ISM band from 57–71 GHz. The
linear array produces fan-beam patterns, and has a peak realized gain of
13.48 dBi at 64 GHz, with less than 1 dB gain variation within the
entire 57–71 GHz. Then, the proposed linear array is employed as a
sub-array in a hybrid parallel-series topology to design a compact and
high-gain 64-element (8 × 8) planar array. The planar array covers
entire 57–71 GHz band with the peak measured gain of 20.12 dBi at 64
GHz and less than 1 dB gain variation within 57–71 GHz, thereby
providing 1 dB gain bandwidth of 14 GHz. The planar array provides
narrow directional beams with an average half-power beamwidth of 9.7°
and 11.78° in the elevation and azimuth planes respectively, for
point-to-point multi-gigabit mmWave connectivity. The phase variation of
the series-fed topology is employed to produce frequency beam-scanning
range 40° in 57–71 GHz band, which is experimentally elucidated. The
array prototypes are fabricated and measured. The measured and simulated
results show reasonably good agreement, thus validating the performance
of the proposed antenna array for 60 GHz mmWave ISM band applications.
The proposed wideband antenna array is a suitable candidate for
numerous emerging mmWave industrial wireless applications in context of
Industry 4.0 and Industry 5.0, as well as 60 GHz FMCW radars. The array
is compatible to work with various 60 GHz physical layer protocols such
as IEEE 802.11ay, IEEE 802.11ad, IEEE 802.15.3c, WirelessHD, and
ECMA-387 as well as other customized industrial protocols such as
WirelessHP.