A Low-Profile Dielectric Resonator Antenna Array for OAM Waves Generation at 5G NR Bands

Abstract

This paper presents the generation of orbital angular momentum (OAM) vortex waves with mode +1 using dielectric resonator antenna (DRA) array. The proposed antenna was designed and fabricated using FR-4 substrate to generate OAM mode +1 at 3.56 GHz (5G new radio band). The proposed antenna consists of 2 × 2 rectangular DRA array, a feeding network, and four cross slots etched on the ground plane. The proposed antenna succeeded in generating OAM waves; this was confirmed by the measured radiation pattern (2D polar form), simulated phase distribution, and intensity distribution. Moreover, mode purity analysis was carried out to verify the generation of OAM mode +1, and the purity obtained was 53.87%. The antenna operates from 3.2 to 3.66 GHz with a maximum gain of 7.3 dBi. Compared with previous designs, this proposed antenna is low-profile and easy to fabricate. In addition, the proposed antenna has a compact structure, wide bandwidth, high gain, and low losses, thus meeting the requirements of 5G NR applications.