High Gain Planar Segmented Antenna for mmWave Phased Array Applications

A new high-gain antenna structure is proposed for mmWave 5G and potentially for B5G and 6G applications. The proposed antenna is configured by a planar segmented patch structure that has a radiator size comparable to the conventional patch but achieves more than 3 dB gain enhancement without a help of superstrate stack-up layer. The proposed planar segmented antenna (PSA) induces multiple magnetic currents through multiple segmented conductors, resulting in a strong magnetic field circulation around the conductors. Only one conductor requires an excitation port and each segmented conductor has a shorting pin to synchronize resonance currents. To verify the PSA operation, several prototypes were fabricated at 28 GHz with the identical volume of1.213\,\,λ ₀ × 1.213\,\,λ ₀ × 0.113\,\,λ ₀, including the ground plane. The maximum measured impedance bandwidth of the single PSA was 23.1%. Furthermore, the measured maximum antenna gain was 11.5 dBi, whereas the same sized reference patch antenna showed only 6.3 dBi.