Next-Gen wireless unleashed: Coplanar waveguide antennas on glass for 5G and beyond

Abstract

With the rapid expansion of 5G and emerging IoT applications, there is an increasing demand for compact, high-performance antennas that can operate efficiently in the millimeter-wave frequency range. This paper presents a compact wideband microstrip patch antenna fed by a coplanar waveguide (CPW), designed for millimeter-wave applications. The antenna is fabricated on a glass substrate with dimensions of 4 . 5 × 2 . 5 × 1 . 1 mm 3 and a relative permittivity of 4.5, resonating at 60 GHz. The use of CPW feeding facilitates fabrication and enhances signal transmission efficiency. The proposed antenna offers several advantages, including ultra-compact size, low profile, and structural simplicity, making it highly suitable for integration in modern wireless systems. The antenna’s performance characteristics, including reflection coefficient, surface current distribution, and radiation efficiency, are analyzed using CSTMWS2024. It exhibits a wide impedance bandwidth ranging from 49.5 to 68.65 GHz, effectively covering key frequency bands allocated for 5G communications. Notably, the antenna achieves a high gain of up to 8 dBi, representing a significant improvement over conventional glass-based patch antennas. Prototypes of the design are successfully fabricated and experimentally validated, with measured results showing strong agreement with simulations. The combination of high gain, broad bandwidth, and minimal footprint makes the proposed antenna an excellent candidate for next-generation wireless applications, particularly in space-constrained environments. Furthermore, the use of a glass substrate provides both mechanical robustness and favorable dielectric properties. Overall, this work highlights a promising antenna solution that balances miniaturization, performance, and manufacturability for advanced 5G communications.