A dielectric-horn integrated resonator antenna for point-to-point wireless communications

The upcoming early 5G communication network is going to be strongly based on wireless backhaul, midhaul and fronthaul radio links. Indeed, this application will allow, for mm-wave frequency ranges like 24, 28 and 39 GHz, a very large bandwidth to ensure high data rates avoiding any expensive fiber installation between the increasing number of radio base stations. This scenario opens to new opportunities for antenna designers since the wavelength reduction leads to more compact radiating structures. In this context, materials play a key role in this technology especially for what concerns high-performance low losses dielectric materials. In this paper, the design and electromagnetic analysis of a dielectric resonator antenna (DRA) are presented. The aim is to propose a 5G-ready antenna for point-to-point (PtP) links in the 28 GHz band. To this end, a novel design to boost the boresight gain of a cylindrical dielectric resonator antenna (CDRA) keeping sidelobes level (SLLs) below -10dB (relative to the peak gain) for both E- and H-planes is presented. Numerical results show that a fractional bandwidth of 14% with a peak realized gain of 13.2 dBi and a total efficiency greater than 80% is obtained.