Dual-Polarized Highly Folded Bowtie Antenna with Slotted Self-Grounded Structure for Sub-6 GHz 5G Applications

Alibakhshikenari, Mohammad; Virdee, Bal S.; See, Chan H.; Shukla, Pancham; Mansouri Moghaddam, Sadegh; Uz Zaman, Ashraf; Shafqaat, Samia; Akinsolu, Mobayode O.; Liu, Bo; Yang, Jian; Abd-Alhameed, Raed; Falcone, Francisco; Limiti, Ernesto

Abstract

In this paper, a novel dual-polarized highly-folded self-grounded Bowtie antenna that is excited through I-shaped slots is proposed for applications in sub-6GHz 5G multiple-input-multiple-output (MIMO) antenna systems. The antenna consists of two pairs of folded radiation petals whose base is embedded in a double layer of FR-4 substrate with a common ground-plane which is sandwiched between the two substrate layers. The ground-plane is defected with two I-shaped slots located under the radiation elements. Each pair of radiation elements are excited through a microstrip line on the top layer with RF signal that is 180° out of phase with respect to each other. The RF signal is coupled to the pair of feedlines on the top layer through the I-shaped slots from the two microstrip feedlines on the underside of the second substrate. The proposed feed mechanism gets rid of the otherwise bulky balun. The Bowtie antenna is a compact solution with dimensions of 32×32×33.8 mm3. Measured results have verified that the antenna operates over a frequency range of 3.1–5 GHz and exhibits an average gain and antenna efficiency in the vertical and horizontal polarizations of 7.5 dBi and 82.6%, respectively.

• Journal Article Type: Article
• Acceptance Date: Sep 21, 2021
• Online Publication Date: Oct 14, 2021
• Publication Date: 2022-04
• Deposit Date: Sep 21, 2021
• Publicly Available Date: Oct 14, 2021
• Journal: IEEE Transactions on Antennas and Propagation
• Print ISSN: 0018-926X
• Publisher: Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers
• Peer Reviewed: Peer Reviewed
• Volume: 70
• Issue: 4
• Pages: 3028-3033
• DOI: https://doi.org/10.1109/TAP.2021.3118784
• Keywords: Bowtie antenna, dual-polarized, slotted self-grounded structure, I-shaped slot, sub-6 GHz, MIMO, 5G applications
• Public URL: http://researchrepository.napier.ac.uk/Output/2803692