Substrate integrated waveguide technology applied to dynamic beam forming techniques for 5G applications: Challenges and opportunities

This contribution presents the challenges and opportunities related to the employment of Substrate Integrated Waveguide (SIW) structures in mm-W 5G array systems with beam forming properties. These architectures usually include arrays of more than 100 antenna elements organized in sub-clusters, which are fed with proper amplitude and phase in order to obtain beam-steering capabilities. These systems generally operate in Ka band, on bandwidths that are larger than 10%, which calls for antennas that are capable of covering large frequency spans with uniform performance. The use of Substrate Integrated Waveguide technology in the design of both the antenna elements and the feeding section can help introduce features that reduce the system complexity, enhance antenna isolation, and allow for a low-cost implementation. Moreover, the use of tunable SIW antenna elements can introduce reconfigurability properties in clustered array configurations, opening for a number of advantages in terms of dynamic performance enhancement.