Cost-Effective Electromagnetic Lens-Assisted Microstrip Patch Antenna Design for Location-Based Services in 5G/6G Technology Radio Frequency Front End

Microstrip patch antennas (MPAs) are popular in wireless communication systems due to their compact size and easy-to-design properties. However, the performance of such antennas sometimes becomes limited, especially when used in location-based services that require either sophisticated antenna arrays-based radio frequency front-end (RFFE) design or complex signal processing techniques. This paper introduces the concept of an electromagnetic (EM) lens-assisted MPA where a polylactic acid (PLA) substrate-based EM lens is combined with a conventional MPA. Because the EM lens has focused ability, the EM lens-assisted MPA provides improved overall antenna performance. In this paper, we design and simulate the EM lens-assisted MPA and analyze the performance at different frequencies, i.e., 4.2 GHz and 10 GHz, and dielectric substrates for the MPA, i.e., FR4, RO4350b, and RT Duroid 5880. The obtained results show that the EM lens-assisted MPA, particularly the RT Duroid substrate- based MPA integrated with the EM lens, outperforms the traditional MPA without the EM lens. Furthermore, the proposed lens antenna can steer the beam as a function of the MPA position with less complexity and improved performance. Thus, the proposed EM lens antenna in this paper has the potential to revolutionize the RFFE design to be used for location-enabled services, especially in fifth/sixth generation (5G/6G) technology.