A Review of Design Consideration, Challenges and Technologies Used in 5G Antennas

The telecommunications industry is one of the fastest growing sector. Technological upgradation is required every year to provide better service quality, coverage and capacity and providing more new features. Fifth generation (5G) is the most recent mobile generation that will offer high-speed internet and data services, minimal-latency services, reliable connections, ultra-high resolution multimedia services, and access to billions of devices which leads to possible the applications such as fully automated production industries, driverless autonomous car, tele-surgery and many more. 5G mobile networks will provide better service quality, coverage and capacity. Larger bandwidth is necessary to provide high data rate services. Due to a lack of frequency spectrum, the currently utilized microwave band is incapable of meeting the 5G objective. So, while the mm-Wave spectrum has a huge number of frequency bands available, high link loss and environmental absorptions are key limits that may be solved by constructing a wide band antenna with high gain, high efficiency, and a steerable narrow radiating beam. The most crucial component of a wireless communication system is the antenna, which transmits and receives radio waves. Microstrip antennas are popular for a variety of applications because to their small size, light weight, low profile, and simple fabrication, but they have some limitations, including low radiation efficiency, low gain, restricted bandwidth, and others. There are several problems and major issues that have yet to be resolved. To attain high performance, low cost, and planar layout, upcoming 5G technology necessitates certain alterations in standard antenna design methodologies. The objective of this study is to address 5G antenna design challenges and barriers, as well as to identify research gaps in this area. It will also cover possible antenna technologies used in antenna design, a review of some recently created antenna solutions, and performance comparisons. To attain the higher performance necessary for 5G and to solve design difficulties, many approaches such as massive MIMO, electromagnetic band gap, substrate integrated waveguide, metamaterials, metasurface, artificial magnetic conductor, dielectric superstrate, butler matrix, and others have been used in 5G antennas. Every approach has advantages and disadvantages, which are explained in this paper. By appropriately combining these strategies, one may obtain the requisite antenna performance for 5G. A review of current developments in 5G antennas based on these approaches is reviewed, along with their merits and limits.