Work

Uniform-Width Slotted mmWave Antenna with Suppressed Sidelobe Level (SLL) and Enhanced Inter-Element Isolation

Year: 2026

Type: article

Abstract: High gain and low sidelobe level remain challenges for 5G millimeter-wave antenna systems. This paper presents a low-sidelobe, high-gain microstrip array antenna based on non-uniformly slotted identical-sized radiating patch, designed to simultaneously enhance gain and suppress sidelobe levels for 5G millimeter-wave (mmWave) communication systems. The key innovation lies in the use of an intermediate-deep, edge-shallow non-uniform slotting technique to precisely control the surface current distribution of the radiating elements. thereby achieving significant sidelobe level (SLL) suppression and antenna isolation enhancement without increasing the physical footprint of each element. The final design operates at a center frequency of 78.5 GHz, achieving a maximum gain of 15 dB and suppressing the first sidelobe below −20 dB, outperforming conventional linear arrays. Notably, the patch width is reduced to only 1 mm—compared to Chebyshev-distributed arrays—resulting in a compact array layout with over 40% unit width size reduction while simultaneously improving inter-element isolation by more than 18 dB. This current-distribution engineering approach offers a novel, structure-efficient pathway for designing high-performance, densely packed mmWave antenna arrays, circumventing the need for additional decoupling structures or enlarg the antenna spacing，simulation results show that the average isolation has increased by more than 5 dB from 76 GHz to 79 GHz. Finally, the same design method was used to design a 24GHz antenna, which was then fabricated and tested. The antenna achieved a sidelobe suppression of -17 dB.

Source: Microwave

DOI: 10.3390/microwave2020008