In this article, a concept of a phased antenna array based on substrate integrated waveguide (SIW) technology for 5G base stations is proposed. The array has a cosecant radiation pattern in the vertical plane for uniform illumination in a sector area. The array itself consists of 16 SIW traveling wave subarrays of 12 slot-coupled microstrip patch antennas associated with a pair of reflection-canceling vias and phasing elements to get the tapered distribution both in amplitude and phase for the cosecant-shaped radiation pattern. The array is designed to be operational at 28 GHz with a bandwidth of more than 10%, a candidate mm-wave frequency band for 5G. The phased antenna array supports wide-angle scanning of +/-60° in azimuth and exhibits good active impedance properties. The array design is successfully verified experimentally.

A novel basic antenna element for travelling-wave substrate integrated waveguide (SIW) arrays is proposed in this study. The antenna element is based on a transverse slot and newly complemented by a pair of vias used for matching and a phase shifter. By changing the geometries of the slot and the phase shifter, the amplitude and phase of a radiated wave can be controlled. The proposed approach extends the potential of transverse slots in SIW-based travelling-wave antenna arrays. To verify the capabilities of the antenna element, the authors demonstrate a six-element array with −30 dB side-lobe suppression, intended for a 24 GHz radar system. The measured results show good agreement with simulations.