Unified Design: Sub-6 GHz Conformal Patch Antennas Integrated With Millimeter-Wave Reflector for Fixed Wireless Access Terminals

The integration of sub-6 conformal patch antennas with an mm-wave reflector is proposed in this communication as a compact multiband antenna solution. Using the concept of shared-aperture antenna, patch antennas are placed on the surface of a reflector to obtain a dual-frequency band antenna without increasing the total volume of the system. The key aspect of the design is the use of a substrate thickness for the patches that is an integer multiple of <inline-formula xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink"> <tex-math notation="LaTeX">$0.5\lambda _{0}$ </tex-math></inline-formula> at the reflector operating frequency, to obtain in-phase reflections and minimize disturbance to reflector operation. As a proof of concept, a 28-GHz off-axis reflector antenna with a sub-6 dual-band U-shaped conformal patch antenna has been designed, simulated, manufactured, and measured.