Analysis of Staircase Power Distributions for Reduced Number of Power Levels for 5G Planar Array Antenna Analog Beamforming

High frequency analog beamforming, especially over 20GHz array antenna, is a challenge as the width of the feed line is reduced. In this paper different beamforming techniques have been analysed using theory and simulation to compare Beam Efficiency (BE), 3 dB beamwidth and Minimum Side-lobe Level (MSLL). Techniques such as Gaussian, Taylor, and Chebyshev give more power levels that are complicated to implement in a very thin substrate system. Staircase power distribution is an exciting recent technique, and that can be tailored to reduce the number of power levels with the same features as in BE, 3 dB beamwidth and MSLL, which is a significant achievement. The analysis can be used to design power distribution feed lines for high frequency array antenna.