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fully edited. Content may change prior to final publication. Citation information: DOI 10.1109/TAP.2018.2842303, IEEE
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1

Compact Quad-Mode Planar Phased Array with

Wideband for 5G Mobile Terminals
Igor Syrytsin, Shuai Zhang, Gert Frølund Pedersen, Senior Member IEEE, and Art Morris, Fellow, IEEE

Abstract—In this paper a quad-mode endfire planar phased especially useful in the characterization of the mobile phased
antenna array with wide scan angle and 1.2 mm clearance is antenna array’s performance [7]. Multi-polarized antenna array
proposed for 5G mobile terminals. The proposed antenna can configuration for mmWave 5G mobile terminals has been
obtain over 8 GHz of impedance bandwidth. Here is suggested
to efficiently combine a multi-mode array element with different proposed in [8]. A low-profile beam steering antenna solution
radiation patterns for each mode into a phased antenna array. for future 5G cellular applications has been designed and
In the array, similar and wide embedded radiation patterns analyzed in [9]. A Vivaldi phased antenna array has been
are obtained for the all four modes. Furthermore, a coaxial studied with the user in [10]. Compact 4G MIMO antenna
to differential stripline transition is designed in this work. The integrated with a 5G array has been designed and evaluated in
differential feeding structure is very compact and utilizes only
MMPX connector and vias. The total scan pattern and coverage [11]. In order to increase the coverage of the phased mobile
efficiency of the measured and simulated phased array antenna antenna array, two different methods have been introduced
are calculated in the range from 25 to 33 GHz, and a good in [12] and [13]. In [12] the 3D coverage has been realized
agreement between measured and simulated results is observed. by switching between 3 sub-arrays mounted on a folded 3D
The mean coverage efficiency along the frequency range is very structure. On the other hand, in [13] the 3D coverage has
similar, but minor difference in variance of coverage efficiency is
observed in the measurements. The coverage efficiency of around been achieved by using a surface wave in order to change
50 % for the threshold gain of 5 dBi is achieved in the chosen radiation pattern main beam directions of the three planar sub-
frequency range. arrays. The bandwidth of the shown antennas is not so big
Index Terms—Antennas, mobile handset antenna, radiation and the wider bandwidth is wanted in order to achieve higher
pattern, coverage efficiency, total scan pattern, 5G antenna, data rates. Furthermore, the exact operating frequency and
planar antenna, wideband antenna, 5G phased array. bandwidth of the 5G communication system is still unknown.
The phased mobile antenna array with wide scan angle has
been proposed in [14]. However, the antenna does not have a
I. I NTRODUCTION
large bandwidth. The bow-tie phased antenna array in [15]
N the past few years, interests in the centimeter (cm) and
I millimeter (mm)-wave bands have grown [1]. In order to
achieve communication speeds in GB/s the 28 GHz band has
has a wide bandwidth and wide scan angle. Yet, designs
in [14] and [15] require at least 6 mm clearance and only
simulation results have been presented. The feeding network
already been allocated by FCC for the future cellular commu- and connectors have not been implemented in these designs.
nication systems. At the cm and mm-wave frequencies, higher In this paper a quad-mode planar antenna with -10 dB
free space path loss becomes a bigger design consideration for bandwidth of 8.2 GHz and -6 dB bandwidth of 10.8 GHz with
the link budgets. However, by using the directional high gain the clearance of 1.2 mm is proposed for the 5G mobile termi-
antennas the path loss can be compensated [2]. Furthermore, nals. The wide bandwidth and wide scan angle is obtained
directional antennas can reduce doppler shift spread [3], reduce by combining four modes. The wide embedded radiation
delay spread in wideband communication channels [4], and patterns are achieved for the all four modes. Because of
decrease the path loss exponent [5]. However, in the cellular the wide embedded radiation patterns of array elements, the
communication systems the user mobility, urban indoor and wide scan angle is achieved by the proposed array. In this
outdoor propagation environments, and arbitrary mobile device paper, the coaxial to differential stripline transition is used to
orientation are some of the most important factors affecting differentially feed the proposed array elements without a balun
the design of base and mobile station antennas. Thus, the structure. In the final design the endfire radiation pattern has
beam steering should be implemented both at mobile and base been obtained along the full operating frequency range of the
stations to obtain the good link quality. array. In this paper, the endfire and broadside directions are
In order to verify the performance of the mobile device defined as the directions along and perpendicular to the phone
considering the arbitrary user equipment orientation the cov- chassis, respectively. The final design is simulated in CST
erage efficiency metric has been proposed in [6]. This metric is Microwave Studio and measured in the anechoic chamber.
In section II the properties of the proposed antenna are
This work was supported by the InnovationsFonden project of
RANGE.(Corresponding author: Shuai Zhang). discussed using a simplified feed. Then, in section III the an-
Igor Syrytsin, Shuai Zhang, and Gert Frølund Pedersen are with the tenna element’s operation in a linear array is examined. Later
Antennas, Propagation and Millimeter-wave Systems section at the De- in section IV the more complex feeding with the connector
partment of Electronic Systems, Aalborg University, Denmark (email:
{igs,sz,gfp}@es.aau.dk). is introduced. Finally, in section V the performance of the
Art Morris is with wiSpry, Irvine, CA 92618 USA proposed mobile 5G phased antenna array with connectors

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will be verified through measurements and simulations. chart in Fig. 3(b). The impedance circles for all four modes
can be observed at the resonant frequencies.
The resonant frequencies of the modes 1 and 2 depend on
II. A NTENNA G EOMETRY AND P RINCIPLE OF O PERATION
the length La 1 and the resonant frequencies of the modes 3 and
In this section, the antenna geometry and operation principle 4 are determined by the length La 2. Furthermore, the resonant
will be explained. The 3D figure of the antenna geometry is frequency of the modes are also affected by the angles Ang1
shown in Fig. 1(a). The substrate has been made transparent and Ang2. The Fig. 4(a) and Fig. 4(b) show parametric sweeps
in order to expose the internal antenna structure. The antenna of angles from 100° to 160°. It can be seen that when Ang1
element consists of two dipole arms on each side of the PCB. is changed, the resonances of modes 1 and 2 are affected.
The dipole arms are joined to the ground plane on each side The Fig.4(b) shows that when the Ang2 is varied then the
of PCB and also the top dipole arm is connected to the bottom resonant frequencies of modes 3 and 4 are affected. However,
one by two vias, as shown in Fig. 1(b) and Fig. 1(c). Other the matching of modes 1 and 2 is affected as well.
vias are utilized in order to suppress the unwanted surface The resonant frequencies of all the modes depend also
wave. The notch, located between the two dipole arms, is used on the height and dielectric constant of the substrate. The
for impedance matching of the antenna. The Rogers RO3003 diameter of the two vias at the end of the dipole arms is also
substrate with the height of 1.524 mm, relative permittivity of an important factor. The dimensions of the notch on the top
3 and loss tangent of 0.001 has been used in the design. In layer and the bottom layer can be adjusted in order to change
a proposed setup, the antenna is fed between two vias by a the antenna matching properties.
discrete port on the top layer, as shown in Fig. 1. In order to obtain the desired performance of the antenna,
the lengths La 1 and La 2 should be chosen to obtain two lower
and two higher resonances. The position of resonances can
be adjusted by changing angles Ang2 and Ang1. Ang2 is
adjusted first, since it mainly changes mode 3,4 and affect
mode 1 2. Next, adjust angle 1 since it mainly varies mode 1
2. Finally, the matching of modes can be fine tuned by altering
the dimensions of the notches.

(a)

(a) (b)
Fig. 2. Electric fields of the proposed antenna’s modes in (a) top view
(b) (c) and (b) bottom view.
Fig. 1. (a) 3D view of the proposed antenna element, geometry of
the proposed antenna in (b) top PCB view and (c) bottom PCB view.
The surface currents of the proposed antenna on the top
When the antenna is excited, four distinctive modes are copper plane are shown in Fig. 5 in order to get a better insight
achieved. The sketch of the electric field produced by the each on the operating mechanism of the proposed antenna. It can
mode can be observed in Fig. 2. It can be noticed that modes be observed that the surface currents are strong for the mode
1 and 2 are generated by the dipole on the top PCB layer and 1 and 2 and weak for the mode 3 and 4 on the top copper
modes 3 and 4 are generated by the dipoles on the bottom plane. The surface currents spread along the edge for the mode
layer. When the antenna is resonating in the mode 1 and 3 the 1 and concentrate close to the dipole and notch for the mode 2.
electric field is present between each of the dipole arms and The surface currents on the bottom copper plane for all modes
the ground plane. When the antenna is resonating in mode 2 are shown in Fig. 6. In this case, the reverse behavior can be
and 4 the electric field of dipole-like nature can be observed observed: mode 3 and 4 have stronger surface currents than
between the dipole arms in Fig. 2. mode 1 and 2. In the way similar to the mode 1 and 2, mode 3
The reflection coefficient of the antenna and resonant fre- has strong surface currents along the edge of the ground plane
quencies of the modes are shown in Fig. 3(a). The reflection and mode 4 have currents concentrated around the notch and
coefficient is plotted for the antenna with dimensions of: dipole arms. From the Fig. 5 and Fig. 6 it can be concluded
Ang1 = 110° and Ang2 = 140°, lengths La 1 = La 2 = 2.2 mm, that the antenna on the top copper plane contributes to the
diameter of vias is 0.3 mm, the length of dipoles is 2.2 mm. radiation of modes 1 and 2 and the antenna on the bottom
Furthermore, the impedance of the antenna is plotted on smith copper plane contributes to the radiation of modes 3 and 4.

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(a)

(a)

(b)

Fig. 4. Parametric sweep of (a) Ang1 and (b) Ang2.

(b)
Fig. 3. (a) Reflection coefficient of the proposed antenna element,
and (b) impedance of the proposed antenna plotted in Smith chart.

Furthermore, because the currents for the modes 1 and 3 (a) (b)
are different from the surface currents of modes 2 and 4
it will be expected that those modes would have different
radiation patterns when excited. The radiation patterns of a
single antenna element are shown in Fig. 7 for all four modes. (c) (d)
It can be clearly seen that radiation patterns of the modes 1 and Fig. 5. Surface currents on the top copper plane of the proposed
antenna operating in (a) mode 1, (b) mode 2, (c) mode 3, and (d)
3 do not have a wanted end-fire radiation pattern. The two-lobe mode 4.
radiation pattern of modes 1 and 3 occurs because the E-field
for those two modes concentrated between the dipole arms
and the ground plane as shown in Fig. 2. However, the similar
endfire radiation pattern is needed if the proposed antenna
element should operate efficiently in an wideband array.

III. O PERATION IN AN A RRAY

In order to investigate the performance of the proposed (a) (b)
element even further, a uniform linear array of 8 elements
has been constructed on the short edge of the typical modern
mobile phone ground plane, as shown in Fig. 8. In the
application, the distance of 5.5 mm between elements has been (c) (d)
chosen. Fig. 6. Surface currents on the bottom copper plane of the proposed
By introducing the neighboring elements, the open loop has antenna operating in (a) mode 1, (b) mode 2, (c) mode 3, and (d)
been formed by the dipole arm of a neighboring element, the mode 4.
edge of the ground plane and one of the dipole arms of the

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(a) (b)
(a) (b) (c) (d)

Fig. 7. Radiation pattern of the proposed antenna element in (a) mode

1, (b) mode 2, (c) mode 3, and (d) mode 4. (c) (d)
Fig. 10. Surface currents on the top copper plane of the proposed
driven antenna. In Fig. 9 it is displayed how the surface cur- array element operating in (a) mode 1, (b) mode 2, (c) mode 3, and
rents will change when neighboring elements are introduced. (d) mode 4.
This open loops help efficiently reduce the surface currents
flowing on the ground for all four modes, and especially for
modes 1 and 3. In this way, all the four modes will have
similar current distributions and radiation patterns.

(a) (b)

Fig. 8. The geometry of the proposed antenna array.

(c) (d)
Fig. 11. Surface currents on the bottom copper plane of the proposed
array element operating in (a) mode 1, (b) mode 2, (c) mode 3, and
(d) mode 4.

formed by the neighboring elements and the ground plane in-

between, the endfire radiation pattern are obtained for all the
four modes.
Fig. 9. Sketch of the open loop formed by neighboring elements.

The surface currents of the proposed array element, located

between two other elements, are shown on the top and bottom
copper planes in Fig. 10 and Fig. 11, respectively. It can be
clearly observed that the current distributions for four modes
are similar, where the currents mainly concentrate around the
driven element and two formed open loops. It is also noticed
that the surface currents on the ground plane edge in mode 3
(see Fig. 11(c)) are relatively stronger than the other modes. (a) (b) (c) (d)
Nonetheless, the mutual coupling between array elements is
low and the isolation is always over 10 dB within the operating
band. Fig. 12. Embedded radiation patterns of the proposed array element
The embedded radiation patterns of the proposed array in (a) mode 1, (b) mode 2, (c) mode 3, and (d) mode 4.
element are shown in Fig. 12. It can be observed that when the
proposed element operates in the array the endfire radiation Finally, the realized gain and sidelobe levels of the array are
pattern can be achieved in all of the modes. However, as investigated for the different number of array elements. The
expected from the corresponding surface currents, the radiation isolation between elements is not shown because the metric of
pattern for the mode 3 in Fig. 12(c) is not exactly endfire. Two the realized gain already includes the coupling between array
sidelobes can be observed in Fig. 12(c), but the gain at the elements and return loss. The maximum realized gain of the
sidelobes is not that high in comparison to the main lobe. In array and sidelobe level are shown in Fig. 13 for array sizes
addition, the inter-element spacing affects the sidelobe levels from 2 to 8 elements. As expected, the realized gain increases
of the modes 1 and 3. And there is a compromise between the and sidelobe level decreases with the number of elements. Yet,
sidelobes of the modes 1 and 3. it can be seen that the difference between 7 and 8 element array
It can clearly be seen that radiation patterns are not orthog- is not significant. However, in the application the 8-element
onal anymore, as in the case in Fig. 7. Due to the open loops array has been chosen because the feeding network for the

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The through via connects the both ground planes, an outer-

connector of the coaxial cable and the other stripline together.
By using the proposed structure a balun is not required in
order to achieve differential feeding of the antenna.

(a) (b)
Fig. 13. Realized gain and sidelobe level of the proposed antenna
array of different number of elements.

array of the odd number of elements is more challenging to

make. Finally, one can notice that the difference of the curves
for the maximum gain are within 1 dB for all of the modes.

IV. C OAXIAL TO D IFFERENTIAL S TRIPLINE T RANSITION

The proposed antenna has to be differentially driven as
shown in Fig. 1. Usually, a Wilkinson power divider and a
wideband 180° phase shifter are used to make a differential
feeding. An example of this antenna feeding technique is
shown in [16]. Another way to achieve the differential feeding
is to use the 180° ring hybrid coupler. However, hybrid coupler
structures are large in size and would significantly decrease the
area available for the electronic components on the mobile (c)
phone ground plane. In this paper, it has been proposed to Fig. 14. (a) 3D view of the antenna with the MMPX connector and
feeding structure and (b) view of the internal feeding structure, and
make a less complex coaxial to differential stripline transition (c) Exploded view of the connector and feeding structure.
in order to achieve the differential feeding of the antenna.
The overview of the antenna structure in 3D (where the
substrate has been made transparent) and the internal feeding V. P HASED A RRAY WITH C ONNECTORS
structure of the proposed antenna are shown in Fig 14. The
In this section a final phased array design, consisting of
differential stripline is connected to the two middle vias on the
the 8 antennas with 8 MMPX connectors, is presented. The
antenna structure. One of those vias is connected to the coaxial
proposed phased antenna array performance is verified by the
inner connector and the other is connected to the coaxial
simulations in the CST Microwave Studio with more than
ground. The MMPX PCB CMD jack [17] (model number:
35.7 million FDTD mesh cells. The smallest cell size is
82M MPX − S50 − 0 − 2) has been mounted on the top ground
0.037 345 7 mm and largest cell size is 0.746 58 mm. Further-
plane. The PCB jack has been placed as close as possible
more, the prototype of the array is constructed and measured
to the antenna, in order to reduce the length and loss of the
in the anechoic chamber.
differential stripline.
The coaxial part of the connector extends all the way to the
top ground plane. At the other end, the differential stripline A. Geometry
has been connected to the top and bottom dipole antennas The proposed phased antenna array has been made on the
through the vias. Furthermore, now the antenna structure four copper layers. Two Taconic RF-30 (εr = 3, tan(δ ) =
is more complex and requires at least one more additional 0.0014) 0.762 mm substrates have been glued with FR-4 (εr =
layer for the differential stripline. Finally, the surface wave 4.3, tan(δ ) = 0.025) glue with 0.2 mm thickness. However,
suppression vias have been added around the feeding structure. the FR4 glue does not affects the performance of the antenna
The exploded view of the connector and feeding structure is significantly. The overview of the layers used in the antenna
shown in Fig. 14(c). array PCB construction is shown in Fig. 15(a). The full PCB
The micro-via connected to the inner connector (center layout is shown in Fig. 15(b) and Fig. 15(c), consisting of four
conductor) of the coaxial cable and one of the striplines. layers, vias and microvias. Because of the connector physical

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dimension limitations, it has been chosen to mount connectors

both on the top and bottom layers. It can be seen that a mixture
of micro-vias and vias has been used. The layer 2 is separated
from the layer 3 by the 0.2 mm thick FR-4 glue.

(a)

(a)

(b)

(b)
Fig. 16. Geometry of the phased antenna array with connectors (a)
top view and (b) side view.
(c) solder has not been included in the simulations. The coordinate
Fig. 15. Overview of the layers in the antenna structure (a) Overview system can be seen in Fig. 17(b). In measurement only one
of the PCB layers, (b) layer 1 and 2, and (c) layer 3 and 4.
antenna has been measured at a time, and 20 dB attenuators
have been connected to the two neighboring elements. The
The top and side views of the phased antenna array are
available measurement system can only measure up to 140° in
shown in Fig. 16. Only the top the PCB has been shown
the elevation plane. Thus, it has been chosen to orient antenna
because the bottom of the PCB looks exactly the same as the
in such a way, so the maximum gain is measured in θ = 0°
top. The dimensions of the ground plane are 106 × 47.5 mm.
direction. Furthermore, the system has better resolution at the
The clearance is only 1.2 mm, as shown in Fig. 16. The side
top and worse resolution at the sides (θ = 90° plane). The 5°
view of the PCB is shown in Fig. 16(b) where connectors
resolution has been chosen both in the elevation and azimuth
mounted on the both sides of the PCB can be spotted.
planes.
Furthermore, the Taconic RF-30 layers are displayed in the
light blue. The dimensions of the array element has been Typically, it is very challenging to measure the phase of the
altered in respect to the Fig. 1 because the feeding point antenna radiation pattern accurately in the anechoic chamber.
has been moved, and also the ground plane thickness has On the other hand, the magnitude of the radiation pattern can
been increased (FR4 glue has been added). The final antenna be obtained by comparing it to the known antenna (a standard
element has following dimensions: gain horn has been used here). In order to measure the phase
• Dipole length La 1 = La 2 = 2.4 mm accurately the phase center of the measurement system should
• Angle between the dipole arms Ant1 = Ang2 = 63° be found and located first. In this measurement, the phase
• Ls 1 = 0.9 mm center has been located by using a simple monopole antenna
• Ls 2 = 0.6 mm and a probe horn. The monopole antenna is rotated and the 2D
• Ws 1 = 0.5 mm radiation pattern is measured by the probe horn. The phase of
• Ws 2 = 0.4 mm the monopole antenna is constant when the antenna is located
• Width of the dipole arms = 0.2 mm in the phase center of the measurement system.
• Diameter of vias is 0.3 mm
• Distance between vias is 0.4 mm After locating the system phase center, there are two ways
• Microvia diameter is 0.4 mm of measuring the antenna array accurately. The first way is
• Stripline width is 0.4 mm to put the antenna array center at the phase center of a
• Distance between striplines is 0.21 mm measuring system and do not move the array location while
• Thickness of all copper planes is 0.034 mm all the elements are measured. The second way is to move
each measured antenna element to the phase center of a
measurement system each time when the measurement is
B. Measurement Procedure
performed.
Next, the phased antenna array prototype and measurement
setup are shown in Fig. 17. The zoomed in view of the con- If the phase center is fixed to each array element, then the
nectors and antennas can be seen in Fig. 17(a). However, the gain of phased array can be computed as:

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measured because the antenna number 8 on the edge was not

j(k·d·sin(θ )+β1 ) j(k·d·sin(θ )+β2 ) working because of the prototype production error. However,
Garray = G1 · e + G2 · e + (1) it can clearly be seen that simulations and measurements agree
j(k·d·sin(θ )+β8 )
... + G8 · e quite well. Only, the region around 30 GHz has around −6 dB
matching, which is an acceptable value for a mobile antenna.
where:
• G1 ...G8 is a measured gain pattern of each antenna
element.
2π
• k = λ is a wave number.
• θ is the angle between the array scanning direction and
the boresight direction.
• β1 ...β8 is a phase shift at each element’s feed.
However, if the phase center is fixed with respect to the
whole array, then the term k · d · sin(θ ) is already included
in the measurement. Thus the Eq.1 can be reduced to the
following form:
(a)
Garray = G1 · e j·β1 + G2 · e j·β2 + ... + G8 · e j·β8 (2)
Theoretically both methods are equally accurate for obtaining
the correct radiation pattern phase. However, if the exact
location of array element’s phase center is not known, then
the first method will be more accurate.
Finally, when processing the results it is important to
mention that the pattern of each element should be calibrated at
the boresight. In order to perform the beamforming correctly,
the phase of each element at the boresight should have the
same value. Furthermore, the phase calibration at the boresight
should be done for co-polarized measurement, because the
phase is more correct if the gain of antenna is high. In this (b)
Fig. 18. Embedded reflection coefficients of (a) simulated array and
paper the first measurement method has been applied. (b) measured array.

D. Scan Angle
To investigate the scanning performance of the phased
antenna array it has been chosen to look on the scan angle.
In order to illustrate the scan angle, the main beam of the
phased antenna array has been shown in the scanning range
from -90° to 90° in Fig. 19. Notice that in order to form
the array, the radiation pattern of the broken antenna element
number 8 has been obtained by mirroring the radiation pattern
of the element number 1. This can be done because of the
antenna array symmetry around Z-axis. Furthermore, because
connectors are mounted on the both sides of PCB, in post-
processing the phase of every second antenna should be altered
(a) (b) 180° in order to execute the beamforming correctly. Because
Fig. 17. Prototype of the phased antenna array with connectors (a)
zoomed in and (b) suspended in the anechoic chamber.
in the final design the four modes could not be distinguished
it has been chosen to illustrate the scanning results for the
frequencies of 25, 27, 29, 31, and 33 GHz. Nonetheless, the
measurements have been carried out in the frequency band
C. S-parameters from 25 to 33 GHz.
The simulated and measured reflection coefficients of the Wide scan angle behavior of the phased array can be
phased antenna array are shown in Fig. 18. It can be no- observed in both simulations and measurements. However,
ticed that the four resonances, shown in Fig. 3(a), cannot the gain of the measured radiation patterns is higher when
be observed anymore because the geometry of the antenna array is scanned to the large scan angles. Furthermore, the
has been changed. Furthermore, the parasitic resonance at position of the beams for each scan angle in simulations and
the frequencies lower than 24 GHz can be observed both in measurements are similar, which means that the prototype
simulations and measurements. Only 7 antennas have been has correct dimensions and distance between elements. The

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beamforming pattern in Fig. 19(a) is more peaky than measure-

ments in Fig. 19(b). It can also be observed that in Fig. 19(h)
the maximum gain is 2 dB lower than that in simulations in
Fig. 19(g). In Fig. 19(e) the simulated gain is approximately
2 dB lower than measured in Fig. 19(f).
The scan angle of the proposed phased antenna array is
comparable to the other proposed mobile phased array designs.
In [12] a switchable antenna array with the scan angle of (a) (b)
around ±80° has been proposed. In [13] a slot antenna array
with the scan angle of ±70° has been designed. Then, in [9]
a low profile antenna has been proposed with the scan angle
of ±80°. Finally, in [14] the wide scan antenna array with the
scan angle of over ±85° has been proposed. However, all of
those phased array designs have a narrow band characteristics
or require big clearance to achieve wide scan angles.
(c) (d)
E. Total Scan Pattern
In order to investigate the coverage of the phased antenna
array, the total scan pattern (TSP) has been calculated. The
total scan pattern is a combination of all possible phased
antenna array’s scan angles, where the best possible gain has
been chosen at each spatial point. Progressive phase shifts of
-180 to 180° have been applied to the antenna elements both
in measurements and simulations. It has been chosen to show (e) (f)
the TSP in the θ ranges from 0 to 140° both for measurements
and simulations in order to reach the fair comparison.
The TSPs for the 25, 27, 29, 31 and 33 GHz frequencies are
plotted in Fig. 20. First, it can be noticed that the maximum
gain is higher for the measured array prototype. Also, the
measured TSP of the prototype is not uniform because of
the probable reflections in the anechoic chamber. Then again,
the shapes of the total scan patterns for the simulations and (g) (h)
measurements look similar.

F. Coverage Efficiency
Importantly, in order to have a full picture of the proposed
phased antenna array performance the coverage efficiency
has been calculated for the frequencies from 25 to 33 GHz.
The coverage efficiency described the spatial coverage of the
phased antenna array system and defined as [7]: (i) (j)
Fig. 19. 2D scan of the proposed phased antenna array (a) simulations
Coverage Solid Angle at 25 GHz, (b) measurements at 25 GHz, (c) simulations at 27 GHz,
ηc = (3) (d) measurements at 27 GHz, (e) simulations at 29 GHz, (f) measure-
Maximum Solid Angle
ments at 29 GHz, (g) simulations at 31 GHz, (h) measurements at
where maximum solid angle defined as 4π steradians. 31 GHz, (i) simulations at 33 GHz, and (j) measurements at 33 GHz.
The curves for the simulated and measured coverage ef-
ficiency are shown in Fig. 21. The lowest coverage can be achieved. It means that if another proposed array is placed on
observed at 30 GHz both in simulations and measurements. the opposite edge of the ground plane and then the coverage
However, the measured coverage efficiency at 30 GHz, espe- efficiency of 100 % would be achieved with the gain of 5 dBi.
cially in the high gain region (≥ 7 dBi), is lower than the The measured coverage efficiency has as much as 0.5 % more
simulated. The highest achievable simulated coverage occurs variance at the gain of 5 dBi in Fig. 22(b). These variance
at 27 and 28 GHz. Having said that, the measured coverage at values can be explained by the unwanted reflections are present
25 GHz is also very high. in the anechoic chamber under the measurement. The variance
Finally, the mean and variance values of the coverage is lower towards the very low and very high gains.
efficiency have been calculated from all frequency curves in
Fig. 21. The simulated and measured mean coverage efficiency VI. C ONCLUSION
have very similar coverage values down to 2.5 dBi of threshold In this paper, a quad-mode endfire planar phased 5G mobile
gain. The 50 % coverage with the gain of 5 dBi has been antenna array with large scan angle and extremely small

0018-926X (c) 2018 IEEE. Personal use is permitted, but republication/redistribution requires IEEE permission. See http://www.ieee.org/publications_standards/publications/rights/index.html for more information.
This article has been accepted for publication in a future issue of this journal, but has not been fully edited. Content may change prior to final publication. Citation information: DOI 10.1109/TAP.2018.2842303, IEEE
Transactions on Antennas and Propagation
9

(a) (b)

(a)
(c) (d)

(e) (f)

(b)
Fig. 21. Coverage efficiency of the phased antenna array: (a) simu-
lations and (b) measurements.
(g) (h)

(i) (j)
Fig. 20. Total scan patterns of the proposed phased mobile antenna
array (a) simulations at 25 GHz, (b) measurements at 25 GHz, (c)
simulations at 27 GHz, (d) measurements at 27 GHz, (e) simulations
at 29 GHz, (f) measurements at 29 GHz, (g) simulations at 31 GHz,
(h) measurements at 31 GHz, (i) simulations at 33 GHz, (j) measure-
ments at 33 GHz.

clearance has been proposed. The array element designed in (a)

this paper has different radiation patterns for each mode, but
when combined into a linear array the embedded radiation
patterns of an element are similar. The optimal distance
between elements should be chosen in order to obtain the clean
endfire embedded radiation patterns for the array elements in
all modes. Furthermore, it has been shown how the surface
currents and radiation patterns of an element change when
combined into an array.
In order to make the proposed element design more practical
for the mobile terminal applications, it has been chosen to
used MMPX connectors and a feeding structure. Here it has (b)
Fig. 22. Statistical investigation of measured and simulated coverage
been proposed to use coaxial to differential stripline feeding efficiency: (a) mean and (b) variance.
transition. Then a four-layer PCB has first been simulated in
CST Microwave Studio and then measured in the anechoic

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This article has been accepted for publication in a future issue of this journal, but has not been fully edited. Content may change prior to final publication. Citation information: DOI 10.1109/TAP.2018.2842303, IEEE
Transactions on Antennas and Propagation
10

chamber. The final phased antenna array design has a scan [15] N. O. Parchin, M. Shen, and G. F. Pedersen, “End-fire phased array
angle of over 140° and impedance bandwidth of 8 GHz. 5G antenna design using leaf-shaped bow-tie elements for 28/38 GHz
MIMO applications,” 2016 IEEE International Conference on Ubiqui-
Finally, the total scan pattern and coverage efficiency of tous Wireless Broadband (ICUWB), pp. 1–4, 2016.
the measured and simulated phased array antenna have been [16] M. Z. Azad and M. Ali, “Novel wideband directional dipole antenna on
a mushroom like ebg structure,” IEEE Trans. Antennas Propag., vol. 56,
calculated in the range from 25 to 33 GHz. The total scan pp. 1242–1250, May 2008.
patterns have the similar shapes for simulations and mea- [17] Huber+Suhner, “MMPX 67 GHz /80 Gbps Snap-on Connec-
surements. The mean coverage efficiency along the frequency tors.” http://pdf.directindustry.com/pdf/huber-suhner/mmpx-connectors/
30583-293349.html.
range is very similar in measurements and simulations, but
the measured antenna array has slightly more variance in
the coverage efficiency between the frequency points. The
coverage efficiency of around 50 % with the gain of 5 dBi
has been achieved on average in the chosen frequency range.

R EFERENCES

[1] T. S. Rappaport, S. Sun, R. Mayzus, H. Zhao, Y. Azar, K. Wang, G. N.

Wong, J. K. Schulz, M. Samimi, and F. Gutierrez, “Millimeter Wave
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[2] W. Roh, J. Y. Seol, J. Park, B. Lee, J. Lee, Y. Kim, J. Cho, K. Cheun, and
F. Aryanfar, “Millimeter-wave beamforming as an enabling technology
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results,” IEEE Commun. Mag., vol. 52, pp. 106–113, Feb. 2014.
[3] S. J. Nawaz, N. M. Khan, M. N. Patwary, and M. Moniri, “Effect of
Directional Antenna on the Doppler Spectrum in 3-D Mobile Radio Igor Syrytsin was born in Saratov, Russia, in 1988.
Propagation Environment,” IEEE Trans. Veh. Technol., vol. 60, no. 7, He received the B.S. degree in electronic engineering
pp. 2895–2903, 2011. and IT and M.S. degree in wireless communication
[4] T. Manabe, Y. Miura, and T. Ihara, “Effects of antenna directivity and systems from Aalborg University, Aalborg, Den-
polarization on indoor multipath propagation characteristics at 60 GHz,” mark, in 2014 and 2016, respectively. Currently, he
IEEE Journal on Selected Areas in Communications, vol. 14, pp. 441– is pursuing the Ph.D. degree at Department of Elec-
448, Apr. 1996. tronic Systems at Aalborg University. His research
[5] Y. Azar, G. N. Wong, K. Wang, R. Mayzus, J. K. Schulz, H. Zhao, interests include mm-wave mobile antenna design
F. Gutierrez, D. Hwang, and T. S. Rappaport, “28 GHz propagation and interactions between user and mobile antennas.
measurements for outdoor cellular communications using steerable beam
antennas in New York city,” 2013 IEEE International Conference on
Communications (ICC), pp. 5143–5147, 2013.
[6] M. U. Rehman, X. Chen, C. G. Parini, and Z. Ying, “Evaluation of a
statistical model for the characterization of multipath affecting mobile
terminal GPS antennas in sub-urban areas,” IEEE Trans. Antennas
Propag., vol. 60, pp. 1084–1094, Feb. 2012.
[7] J. Helander, K. Zhao, Z. Ying, and D. Sjöberg, “Performance analysis
of millimeter-wave phased array antennas in cellular handsets,” IEEE
Antenna Wireless Propag. Lett., vol. 15, pp. 504–507, 2016.
[8] W. Hong, S. T. Ko, Y. Lee, and K. H. Baek, “Multi-polarized antenna
array configuration for mmWave 5G mobile terminals,” 2015 Interna-
tional Workshop on Antenna Technology (iWAT), pp. 60–61, Mar. 2015.
[9] W. Hong, K. Baek, Y. Lee, and Y. G. Kim, “Design and analysis of
a low-profile 28 GHz beam steering antenna solution for Future 5G
cellular applications,” Microwave Symposium (IMS), 2014 IEEE MTT-S
International, pp. 1–4, Jun. 2014.
[10] N. Ojaroudiparchin, M. Shen, and G. F. Pedersen, “Design of Vivaldi
antenna array with end-fire beam steering function for 5G mobile
terminals,” 2015 23rd Telecommunications Forum Telfor (TELFOR),
pp. 587–590, 2015. Shaui Zhang received the B.E. degree from the
[11] R. Hussain, A. T. Alreshaid, S. K. Podilchak, and M. S. Sharawi, University of Electronic Science and Technology of
“Compact 4G MIMO antenna integrated with a 5G array for current China, Chengdu, China, in 2007 and the Ph.D. de-
and future mobile handsets,” IET Microwaves, Antennas & Propagation, gree in electromagnetic engineering from the Royal
vol. 11, no. 2, pp. 271–279, 2017. Institute of Technology (KTH), Stockholm, Swe-
[12] N. Ojaroudiparchin, M. Shen, S. Zhang, and G. F. Pedersen, “A Switch- den, in 2013. After his Ph.D. studies, he was a
able 3-D-Coverage-Phased Array Antenna Package for 5G Mobile Research Fellow at KTH. In April 2014, he joined
Terminals,” IEEE Antennas Wireless Propag. Lett., vol. 15, pp. 1747– Aalborg University, Denmark, where he currently
1750, 2016. works as Associate Professor. In 2010 and 2011,
[13] S. Zhang, X. Chen, I. Syrytsin, and G. F. Pedersen, “A Planar Switchable he was a Visiting Researcher at Lund University,
3D-Coverage Phased Array Antenna and Its User Effects for 28 GHz Sweden and at Sony Mobile Communications AB,
Mobile Terminal Applications,” IEEE Trans. Antennas Propag., vol. 65, Sweden, respectively. He was also an external antenna specialist at Bang &
pp. 6413–6421, Dec. 2017. Olufsen, Denmark from 2016-2017. He has coauthored over 40 articles in
[14] N. Ojaroudiparchin, M. Shen, and G. F. Pedersen, “Wide-scan phased well-reputed international journals and over 14 (US or WO) patents. His
array antenna fed by coax-to-microstriplines for 5G cell phones,” 2016 research interests include: mobile terminal mm-wave antennas, biological
21st International Conference on Microwave, Radar and Wireless Com- effects, CubeSat antennas, UWB wind turbine blade deflection sensing, MIMO
munications (MIKON), pp. 1–4, 2016. antenna systems, and RFID antennas.

0018-926X (c) 2018 IEEE. Personal use is permitted, but republication/redistribution requires IEEE permission. See http://www.ieee.org/publications_standards/publications/rights/index.html for more information.
This article has been accepted for publication in a future issue of this journal, but has not been fully edited. Content may change prior to final publication. Citation information: DOI 10.1109/TAP.2018.2842303, IEEE
Transactions on Antennas and Propagation
11

Gert Frølund Pedersen was born in 1965. He

received the B.Sc. and E.E. (Hons.) degrees in
electrical engineering from the College of Tech-
nology in Dublin, Dublin Institute of Technology,
Dublin, Ireland, in 1991, and the M.Sc.E.E. and
Ph.D. degrees from Aalborg University, Aalborg,
Denmark, in 1993 and 2003, respectively. Since
1993, he has been with Aalborg University where he
is a Full Professor heading the Antenna, Propagation
and Networking LAB with 36 researchers. He is
also the Head of the Doctoral School on wireless
communication with some 100 Ph.D. students enrolled. His research interests
include radio communication for mobile terminals especially small antennas,
diversity systems, propagation, and biological effects. He has published more
than 175 peer reviewed papers and holds 28 patents. He has also worked as a
Consultant for developments of more than 100 antennas for mobile terminals
including the first internal antenna for mobile phones in 1994 with lowest
SAR, first internal triple-band antenna in 1998 with low SAR and high TRP
and TIS, and lately various multiantenna systems rated as the most efficient on
the market. He has worked most of the time with joint university and industry
projects and have received more than 12 M$ in direct research funding. He
is currently the Project Leader of the SAFE project with a total budget of 8
M$ investigating tunable front end including tunable antennas for the future
multiband mobile phones. He has been one of the pioneers in establishing
over-the-air measurement systems. The measurement technique is now well
established for mobile terminals with single antennas and he was chairing the
various COST groups (swg2.2 of COST 259, 273, 2100, and now ICT1004)
with liaison to 3GPP for over-the-air test of MIMO terminals. He is currently
involved in MIMO OTA measurement.

Arthur S. Morris III (S’90–M’91–SM’04–F’13)

received the B.S. degree in physics and also in
electrical engineering and M.S. and Ph.D. degrees
in electrical engineering from North Carolina State
University (NCSU), Raleigh, NC, USA, in 1983,
1986, and 1993, respectively. As a Scientist/Engi-
neer with a concentration on physical electronics
and electromagnetic fields for over 30 years, he
has contributed to device technologies ranging from
traveling-wave tubes to millimeter-wave heterojunc-
tion bipolar transistors and has developed products
for markets from high-voltage instrumentation to broadband communication
systems. In 1999, he joined Coventor, to lead software and hardware devel-
opment to drive the transition of microelectromechanical systems (MEMS)
and microsystems from the laboratory into products for RF and optical
applications. He is a cofounder of Wispry Inc., Irvine, CA, USA, which spun
out of Coventor in 2002. He is the company’s Chief Technical Officer (CTO)
and leads the development of high-performance programmable RF products
for high-volume markets utilizing MEMS, CMOS, and advanced packaging.
He is an Adjunct Professor with NCSU.

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