28 GHz compact omnidirectional circularly polarized antenna for device-to-device communications in the future 5G systems

An omnidirectional circularly polarized (OCP) antenna operating at 28 GHz is reported and has been found to be a promising candidate for device-to-device (D2D) communications in the next generation (5G) wireless systems. The OCP radiation is realized by systematically integrating electric and magnetic dipole elements into a compact disc-shaped configuration (9.23 mm(3) = 0.008 lambda(3)(0) at 28 GHz) in such a manner that they are oriented in parallel and radiate with the proper phase difference. The entire antenna structure was printed on a single piece of dielectric substrate using standard PCB manufacturing technologies and, hence, is amenable to mass production. A prototype OCP antenna was fabricated on Rogers 5880 substrate and was tested. The measured results are in good agreement with their simulated values and confirm the reported design concepts. Good OCP radiation patterns were produced with a measured peak realized RHCP gain of 2.2 dBic. The measured OCP overlapped impedance and axial ratio bandwidth was 2.2 GHz, from 26.5 to 28.7 GHz, an 8 % fractional bandwidth, which completely covers the 27.5 to 28.35 GHz band proposed for 5G cellular systems.