A Dual-Band Reconfigurable Shared-Aperture Antenna Array With Independent Sub-6-GHz and Centimeter-Wave Beam Control

Zhaoyang Ming, Junhui Rao, Jichen Zhang, Yijun Chen, Alikhan Umirbayev, Chi Yuk Chiu, Ross Murch

A planar dual-band reconfigurable shared-aperture antenna array is proposed for compact next-generation wireless front ends that require both sub-6-GHz and centimeter-wave (cm-wave) coverage. The array integrates a 2 by 2 sub-6-GHz microstrip dipole array and a 4 by 4 cm-wave stacked patch array within the same aperture, while providing independent beam control in the two bands without conventional T/R modules or beamforming networks. Slot-coupled feeding is employed to separate the radiating aperture from the reconfigurable RF feeding networks and DC bias circuits. PIN-diode-loaded split feeding rings first provide independent 1-bit phase reconfigurability for both bands. A compact reconfigurable $90^{\circ}$ phase shifter is then introduced as an additional phase-control stage, resulting in 2-bit phase control for sub-6 GHz elements and cm-wave subarrays. To reduce cross-band coupling in the compact shared aperture, a double-layer electromagnetic band-gap (EBG) structure is used to suppress cm-wave surface waves and higher-order sub-6-GHz modes excited by the cm-wave elements. A prototype is fabricated and measured. In the sub-6-GHz band, 11 reconfigurable radiation patterns are obtained, including two difference patterns and nine directional beams, with a peak broadside gain of 10.5 dBi. In the cm-wave band, two-dimensional beam scanning up to $\pm40^{\circ}$ is demonstrated with a peak gain of 14.6 dBi in both the E-plane and H-plane. These results show that the proposed architecture can combine dual-band shared-aperture integration and independent reconfigurable beam control in a compact antenna platform.