Magneto-Electric Dipole antenna for 5-G applications

Magneto Electric (ME) dipoles have been widely studied over the last few years. They are becoming increasingly popular as they allow to generate a wide bandwidth in a printed circuit board (PCB). Nevertheless, their principle of operation requires the use of relatively thick substrates (i.e. about 0. 25λ
0
, where λ
0
is the free-space wavelength) thus resulting in a bulky stack-up. This work tackles this problem by proposing a new type of low -profile ME dipole. The proposed configuration is fed using a slot-coupled microstrip line feed and it employs bandwidth enhancement solutions previously used in metal-only structures. As a result, an ultrathin antenna is achieved which operates over a 20% bandwidth at Ka-band while using an ultrathin dielectric layer being the antenna thickness equal to 0.082 λ
0
. Moreover, the antenna has a gain of about 5.5 dBi across the entire bandwidth, which makes the proposed design suitable for next generation 5G base stations.