Design and Testing of a 5G mmWave Antenna for Urban Dense Networks

Ismail, Laith; Bhushan, Aqeel

doi:10.25673/123718

Proceedings of International Conference on Applied Innovation in IT · 2026/03/31 · Vol. 14 · Issue 1 · pp. 1189–1196

Design and Testing of a 5G mmWave Antenna for Urban Dense Networks

Laith S. Ismail, Aqeel Al-Hilali and Bharat Bhushan

📄 Download PDF DOI: 10.25673/123718

Abstract

The rapid development of 5G networks has increased the need of tiny, high-gain, and wide-band millimeter-wave (mmWave) antennas which can effectively work in crowded urban settings. In this paper, the design, simulation, fabrication and testing of a miniaturized 28 GHz antenna to be used in 5G FR2 bands is done. The antenna proposed combines defected ground structure (DGS) and optimised arc-shaped geometry to improve impedance matching, bandwidth and directional radiation. CSM Microwave Studio was used to model the antenna which was manufactured on Rogers RT/Duroid 5880 substrate. The simulated results show a return loss of less than -15 dB, VSWR less than 2 and gain of more than 7.5 dBi. Experimental measurements that were conducted in a setup of a vector network analyzer and anechoic chamber confirmed these results. The 2D and 3D radiation patterns ensure consistent directional operation which is capable of deployment in small cell networks in urban areas. When comparing the proposed antenna to the latest designs, it is evident that the first one has better gain-bandwidth trade-off and is smaller as well. This project is an encouraging basis of the future advancement of reconfigurable or array-based mmWave antenna systems to support 5G and beyond.

Keywords

5G Antennas mmWave Defected Ground Structure CST Simulation Urban Wireless Networks.

References

F. Mehmood and A. Mehmood, “Recent Advancements in Millimeter-Wave Antennas and Arrays: From Compact Wearable Designs to Beam-Steering Technologies,” Electronics, vol. 14, no. 13, p. 2705, 2025.
T. Hong, S. Zheng, R. Liu, and W. Zhao, “Design of mmWave directional antenna for enhanced 5G broadcasting coverage,” Sensors, vol. 21, no. 3, p. 746, 2021.
A. S. Seraj, “Study on Propagation Characteristics of 5G Millimeter-Wave Wireless Communication Systems for Dense Urban Environments,” Ph.D. dissertation, Waseda University, 2019.
A. Jabbar, J. U. R. Kazim, M. A. Shawky, M. A. Imran, Q. Abbasi, M. Usman, and M. Ur-Rehman, “High performance 5G FR-2 millimeter-wave antenna array for point-to-point and point-to-multipoint operation: Design and OTA measurements using a compact antenna test range,” arXiv preprint, arXiv:2407.09944, 2024, [Online]. Available: https://arxiv.org/abs/2407.09944.
R. N. Tiwari, O. S. Sai, D. Sharma, M. S. Kumar, P. Singh, P. Kumar, and S. Rajasekaran, “A low-profile dual-band millimeter wave patch antenna for high-speed wearable and biomedical applications,” Results in Engineering, vol. 24, p. 103212, 2024.
P. Kumar, T. Ali, O. P. Kumar, S. Vincent, P. Kumar, Y. Nanjappa, and S. Pathan, “An ultra-compact 28 GHz arc-shaped millimeter-wave antenna for 5G application,” Micromachines, vol. 14, no. 1, p. 5, 2022.
D. Z. Mohammed and A. J. Al-Gburi, “Compact, Gain-Enhanced 5 G mmWave Antenna with Metallic Ground-Backed Reflector for High-Speed Railway Communication Systems,” High-speed Railway, 2025.
E. M. Ali, M. Alibakhshikenari, N. A. Elmunim, B. S. Virdee, N. Rashid, D. Mariyanayagam, and T. Saber, “Defected ground structure antenna array with metasurface inspired interlinked CSRR for 5G millimeter wave applications,” Scientific Reports, vol. 15, no. 1, p. 28534, 2025.
E. M. Ali, M. Alibakhshikenari, N. A. Elmunim, B. S. Virdee, N. Rashid, D. Mariyanayagam, and T. Saber, “Defected ground structure antenna array with metasurface inspired interlinked CSRR for 5G millimeter wave applications,” Scientific Reports, vol. 15, no. 1, p. 28534, 2025.
J. Choi, S. Lee, and Y. Lee, “Miniature millimeter wave 5G antenna fabricated using anodized aluminum oxide (AAO) for mobile devices,” Electronics, vol. 9, no. 9, p. 1420, 2020.
M. V. Yadav, C. R. Kumar, S. V. Yadav, T. Ali, and J. Anguera, “A Miniaturized Antenna for Millimeter Wave 5G II Band Communication,” Technologies, vol. 12, no. 1, p. 10, 2024.
M. M. Kamal, S. Yang, S. H. Kiani, M. R. Anjum, M. Alibakhshikenari, Z. A. Arain, and E. Limiti, “Donut-shaped mmwave printed antenna array for 5G technology,” Electronics, vol. 10, no. 12, p. 1415, 2021.
A. Kumar and A. Kumar, “Defected Ground Structure Based High Gain, Wideband and High Diversity Performance Quad-Element MIMO Antenna Array for 5G Millimeter-Wave Communication,” Progress In Electromagnetics Research B, vol. 101, 2023.
P. R. Mane, P. Kumar, T. Ali, and M. G. N. Alsath, “Planar MIMO antenna for mmWave applications: Evolution, present status & future scope,” Heliyon, vol. 9, no. 2, 2023.
R. H. Elabd, A. J. Al-Gburi, and A. A. Megahed, “Compact Circular MIMO Antenna with Defected Ground Structure (DGS) for Improved Isolation in 5G sub-6 GHz Mobile Systems,” Results in Engineering, p. 105737, 2025.
F. A. Bida and H. A. Naser, “Diagnostic of Osteoporosis Using Backpropagation Neural Networks,” Journal of Techniques, vol. 7, no. 2, pp. 10-20, 2025, [Online]. Available: https://doi.org/10.51173/jt.v7i2.2597.
O. Al-Janabi, O. M. Alyasiri, E. A. Jebur, and S. M. Nafl, “Evaluating AI Language Models in News Retrieval: A Comparative Study Of ChatGPT-Plus and DeepSeek (R1),” InfoTech Spectrum: Iraqi Journal of Data Science, vol. 2, no. 2, pp. 14-20, 2024, [Online]. Available: https://doi.org/10.51173/ijds.v2i2.33.