A Beamforming Network for 5G/6G Multibeam Antennas Using the PCB Technology

This paper presents the design of a 4×4 Blass matrix for enabling beamforming operations in a four-element uniform linear antenna array (ULAA) operating at 3.5 GHz, corresponding to the first frequency band reserved for the forthcoming fifth and sixth generation (5G/6G) systems. To obtain a simple and inexpensive device, the proposed feeding network, which provides to the ULAA beam pointing capabilities towards four different directions, is entirely implemented using printed circuit board technology. The design procedure is realized adopting an extended iterative mathematical framework accounting for losses control and providing the pointing angles and the matrix coefficients. The performance of the conceived architecture is numerically investigated through full-wave simulations. The versatility, low losses, and low price of the developed microstrip network makes it suitable for both 5G/6G air/terrestrial femtocell base stations and Internet of Things (IoT) cluster-head sensors/actuators.