Stream of Knowledge

  In 5G communication systems, the phased-array antenna is one of the lead front-end components that defines massive multiple-input, multiple-output (MIMO) performance. The trend outlined in recent years involves providing a robust and complete platform/wizard for RF/microwave engineers to develop more capable antennas and other RF front-end components in less time than before. 1   In addition, systems that operate at millimeter-wave (mmWave) frequencies offer benefits that include small antenna sizes and more available bandwidth. 2 However, a challenge arises due to the wide variety of application-driven requirements, which encompasses everything from both city and rural environments to realized gain, scan, and polarization performance attributes to impedance matching and more. Such an extensive number of requirements cannot be met by a single and one-time designed element. This means that any practically convenient modeling platform must contain an extensive library of prede...

Microstrip is a type of electrical transmission line which can be fabricated using printed circuit board technology, and is used to convey microwave-frequency signals. It consists of a conducting strip separated from a ground plane by a dielectric layer known as the substrate. The most commonly employed microstrip antenna is a rectangular patch which looks like a truncated  microstrip  transmission line. It is approximately of one-half wavelength long. When air is used as the dielectric substrate, the length of the rectangular microstrip antenna is approximately one-half of a free-space  wavelength . As the antenna is loaded with a dielectric as its substrate, the length of the antenna decreases as the relative  dielectric constant  of the substrate increases. The resonant length of the antenna is slightly shorter because of the extended electric "fringing fields" which increase the electrical length of the antenna slightly. An early model of the microst...