Improved Microstrip Antenna with FSS Superstrate for 5G NR Applications

The development of a microstrip patch antenna with a band-pass frequency selective surface superstrate for 5G New Radio applications at 3.5 GHz is presented in this paper. The frequency selective surface is based on the four-arms star geometry. The structure proposed was manufactured and measurements were performed and compared to simulations. The superstrate performance in function of the distance between the microstrip patch antenna and the FSS is analysed in detail. A measured gain improvement of 5.74 dB is achieved for a distance of 4.5 cm, approximately λ/2.