Plasmonics (2021) 16:1417–1425

https://doi.org/10.1007/s11468-021-01412-x

Design of Efficient 37 GHz Millimeter Wave Microstrip Patch Antenna

for 5G Mobile Application
S. M. Shamim1 · Umme Salma Dina2 · Nahid Arafin2 · Sumia Sultana2

Received: 2 October 2020 / Accepted: 17 February 2021 / Published online: 4 March 2021
© The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Springer Science+Business Media, LLC part of Springer Nature 2021

Abstract
Millimeter wave (mmWave) wireless technology has become a part of human life for high-speed and secure data transmission.
This paper presents a square-slotted microstrip patch antenna at 37 GHz resonant frequency for mmWave wireless
communication. The antenna consists of one H-slot and one inverted T-slot loaded over the radiating patch. The proposed
antenna has been designed and investigated on Rogers RT5880 substrate with relative permittivity 2.2 and loss tangent 0.0009
using Electromagnetic Simulation Software CST Microwave Studio. The result of this paper shows minimal return loss
−43.05 dB, gain 8.18 dB, and impedance bandwidth 16.22% at 37 GHz resonant frequency. The voltage standing wave ratio
(VSWR), E-plane, and H-plane radiation pattern has also presented for the proposed antenna which can be strong candidate
for 5G mmWave cellular communication.

Keywords Fifth generation (5G) · Millimeter wave (mmWave) · Microstrip patch antenna · Wireless communication

Introduction communication system must be upgraded to ensure high

data rates, better connectivity, high-quality network, and
Fifth Generation (5G) networks beyond the 4G networks larger bandwidth [7]. 5G wireless technology is a promising
will play important role in wireless communication by solution for multi-Gbps data rates in future mobile
operating at millimeter wave (mmWave) frequency band. communications.
The mobile communication revolution is rated from 1 to In addition, the antenna design is one of the most
4G where each generation is being improved from their challenging tasks for supporting future 5G cellular
previous generation [1, 2]. The common application of communication. An efficient and high-performance–based
4G technology is machine to machine communication, antenna is needed to increase the performance of mobile
remote host monitoring, video call data flow etc. There communication. One of the most common types of
are some limitations of 4G technology which are high antenna is microstrip patch antenna which is widely used
energy consumption, connection loss, and poor quality and for their low cost, small size, and light weight [8]. The
coverage area which degrade system performances [3, 4]. Federal Communication Commission (FCC) announced
Each day, a large number of new devices are connecting three licensed mmWave frequency bands in 2016 for fifth
to the wireless networks [5]. 4G wireless technology generation mobile communication that are 27 GHz (27.5
will not meet the future demand due to rapid growth of to 28.35 GHz), 37 Hz (37 to 38.6 GHz), and 39 GHz (38.6
connected device in mobile communication [6]. Mobile to 40 GHz) [9]. Afterward, different mmWave frequency
bands have been proposed for fifth-generation cellular
communication, which are 15 GHz, 28 GHz, 37 GHz,
* S. M. Shamim 60 GHz, 64 GHz, 71 GHz, and 73 GHz [10–13]. MmWave
[email protected]
spectrum 37 GHz has been proposed by FCC for 5G wireless
1
Department of Information And Communication network, Internet of Things, and others advanced spectrum
Technology, Mawlana Bhashani Science And Technology basis services [14, 15].
University, Tangail 1902, Bangladesh Different researchers have been working at 37 GHz
2
Department of Information And Communication operating frequency for 5G technology [9, 16–21]
Engineering, Bangladesh Army University of Engineering & separately. Their main objective is to design an optimal
Technology, Natore, Bangladesh

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1418 Plasmonics (2021) 16:1417–1425

antenna having high gain, larger bandwidth, and better

radiation pattern at operating frequency of 37 GHz. A
novel mmWave multiband Microstrip patch antenna has
been proposed by Lodro et al. [16] at operating 37 GHz
and 54 GHz. The authors describe their proposed antenna
result in terms of reflection coefficient, efficiency,
and E–H field pattern. Goudos et al. [17] proposed an
E-shaped dual-band antenna at center frequency 25 GHz
and 37 GHz for 5G mobile communication. They used
teaching learning optimization algorithm to design
E-shaped patch antenna. A millimeter wave phased dipole
array antenna with two opening holes has been presented
by Peng et al. [9] from 37 to 40 GHz operating frequency.
A compact substrate-integrated waveguide (SIW) slotted
antenna at 37 GHz has been presented by Shehab et al.
[18] for polarimetric radiometer system (PMR) in soil
moisture measurement. Their designed antenna achieved
high Q-factor and high gain which makes suitable for
radiometer application. A magneto electric dual-band
dipole antenna was proposed by Dadgarpour et al. [19]
for wireless communication operating frequency from Fig. 1  Structure of proposed antenna
26.5 to 38.3 GHz. Higher gain and radiation efficiency
was achieved in their proposed antenna. A multiple
input-multiple output rectangle Microstrip patch antenna Antenna Design and Configuration
at 28 GHz, 37 GHz, 41 GHz, and 74 GHz frequency
was reported by Sunthari et al. [20] for 5G cellular The geometrical configuration of the proposed single-
communication. Simulation output has been described band square microstrip patch antenna at operating
in terms of return loss, VSWR, and radiation efficiency. frequency 37 GHz is shown in Fig. 1. It comprises three
A dual polarized antenna subarray at center frequency plane: radiating plane, substrate plane, and ground plane.
37 GHz has been proposed by Chu et al. [21]. A printed The proposed antenna was designed on a Rogers RT5880
patch antenna array was reported by Oktafiani et al. [22] substrate with a dielectric constant of 2.2, thickness of
for 37 GHz operation with five elements in an array 1.2 mm, and loss tangent of 0.0009. The top surface of the
structure using Microstrip methods. From 29.5 to 37 GHz radiating patch consists of two slots. The H-shape slot has
frequency range, a circular polarized dipole antenna has been etched at the upper side of the patch and the inverted
been described by Dadgarpour et al. [23] for multiple T-shape slot was introduced at the bottom side of the square
input-multiple output 5G wireless communications. radiating patch. Rogers Corporation RT5880 has been
Moreover, different studies have been performed used as substrate material due to its sustainability in high
and have proposed different antennas for 5G cellular frequency and minimal dispersion loss [24]. Two slots over
communication. Their proposed antenna has either a larger the radiating patch have been adapted to resonate with the
size or lower impedance bandwidth or lower gain which antenna at center frequency 37 GHz. It also achieves wide
degrades antenna performance in wireless communication. impedance bandwidth, higher gain, and perfect impedance
Further studies are required to support high-speed matching [25].
data transmission. The main goal of this research is to A copper plate with the dimension 12 × 12×.0035mm3 has
design an antenna with minimal return loss, higher gain, been used as a ground plane. Ground plane location from the
and larger impedance bandwidth for cellular wireless feed line determines impedance matching for microstrip patch
communication. The novelty of the proposed antenna lies antenna. The length and width of the radiating patch occupies
on its slot and observed features. This paper proposed pl = 6 mm and pw = 6 mm, respectively. The length and width
a high-performance microstrip patch antenna with of the H-slot occupy r = 3.5 mm and t = 3.4 mm, respectively.
impedance bandwidth 16.22%, gain 8.25, and return loss The values of w and p for the inverted T-slot which belong
−43.4 dB at 37 GHz resonant frequency for 5G cellular to the y-axis are w = 0.4 mm and p = 1.8 mm. The values of
communication. m and s which belong to the x-axis are 3 mm and 0.7 mm,

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Plasmonics (2021) 16:1417–1425 1419

respectively. All of the aforesaid dimensions over the radiating Finally, the effective length and width of the patch are
patch have notable effect on the antenna performance. The calculated as [26]
proposed antenna has been excited by the microstrip feed line 𝜈0
to achieve 50Ω impedance characteristics which provides Leff = √ (4)
2fr 𝜖reff
good frequency response over the entire frequency ranges. The
width and length of the microstrip feed line are fw = 0.64 mm
and fl = 3 mm. The dimension of antenna is optimized after
√
v0 2
many simulations using EM software CST Microwave Studio. W= (5)
2fr 𝜖r + 1

Numerical Analysis
Result and Analysis
A slotted square microstrip patch antenna has been
designed at 37 GHz operating frequency for 5G cellular The proposed antenna in Fig. 1 is simulated using EM
communication. The entire schematic dimension for software CST microwave studio, which is based on the finite
proposed design was selected according to transmission line element method as a numerical analysis. The result of this
model [26, 27]. The values of effective dielectric constant proposed antenna has been investigated in terms of return
𝜖reff and length extension have been calculated using Eqs. 1 loss, voltage standing wave ratio (VSWR), and gain and
and 2. The dimension of the proposed antenna is tabulated radiation pattern at 37 GHz resonant frequency for 5G cellular
in Table 1: communication. The best performance of an antenna depends
on these parameters. An extensive parametric analysis has
𝜖r + 1 𝜖r − 1 12h −1∕2 been performed for investigating the effects of antenna
𝜖reff = + [1 + ] (1)
2 2 w parameters on the antenna performance. Firstly, the length and
width of the inverted T slot has been varied over the antenna.
(𝜖reff + 0.3)( wh + 0.264) The reflection co-efficient (S11) is one of the vital parameters
ΔL = h × 0.421 (2) for investigating antenna performances whose value should
(𝜖reff − 0.258)( wh + 0.8)
be less than −10 dB. Figure 2 depicts the simulated reflection
where 𝜖r is the dielectric constant, w is the width of the coefficient for w1 = 0.4 mm, w2 = 0.3 mm, and w3 = 0.2 mm
radiating patch, and h is the height of the substrate. The for the proposed antenna. The simulation result shows
actual length of microstrip patch is expressed as [26] that return losses are about −43.05 dB, −39.57 dB, and
−37.64 dB, respectively, for the different values of w1, w2,
L = Leff − 2ΔL (3) and w3 at 37 GHz center frequency.
Figure 3 shows the effect of reflection co-efficient (S11)
of the proposed antenna for various values of s1, s2, and
s3. The corresponding reflection coefficients (S11) about
Table 1  The geometrical Parameters Value (mm) −43.05 dB, −44.03, and −30.37 dB have been achieved for
parameters of the proposed
the values of s1 = 0.7 mm, s2 = 0.8 mm, and s3 = 0.6 mm,
antenna Gw 12
respectively. It is observed that minimal return loss
Gl 12
−44.03 dB has been obtained for the value of s2 = 0.8 mm
pw 6
at 37.20 GHz center frequency.
pl 6
In addition, the dimension of H slot width also affects the
sw 12
antenna performance. The values of reflection coefficient
sl 12
(S11) for different values of u1, u2, and u3 are about
fw 0.64
34.90 dB, −43.05 dB, and −32.10 dB respectively which
fl 3
is depicted in Fig 4. The minimal values of S11 have been
t 3.4
obtained as −43.05 dB for u2 = 0.5 mm at 37 GHz center
r 3.5
frequency.
w 0.4
The optimal values of w = 0.4 mm, s = 0.7 mm, and
p 1.8
u = 0.5 mm have been achieved after analyzing various
m 3
dimensions of the H slot and inverted T slot which are etched
s 0.7
over the radiating patch. After considering the optimal values,
u 0.5
the return loss vs frequency plot of the proposed antenna
x 0.3
has been depicted in Fig 5. The minimal return loss (S11)

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Fig. 2  The return loss

characteristics for various
values of w (w1 = 0.4 mm,
w2 = 0.3 mm, and w3 = 0.2 mm)

−43.05 dB has been obtained with impedance bandwidth The voltage standing wave ratio versus frequency plot
6 GHz ranging from 34.50 to 40.50 GHz. has been shown in Fig 7. The VSWR is used to measure
Gain is another important parameter for analyzing antenna the mismatch between feeding line and antenna. The ideal
performance. The variation of gain with respect frequency value of VSWR is 1 for perfectly impedance matching,
is shown in Fig 6. The proposed antenna gain is found up to which means a hundred percent power is accepted with
8.24533 dB at 37 GHz resonant frequency. zero reflection. In practical application, VSWR is always

Fig. 3  The return loss

characteristics for various
values of s (s1 = 0.7 mm,
s2 = 0.8 mm, and s3 = 0.6 mm)

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Plasmonics (2021) 16:1417–1425 1421

Fig. 4  Return loss

characteristics for various
values of u (u1 = 0.4 mm,
u2 = 0.5 mm, and u3 = 0.6 mm)

preferred less than 2 for good impedance matching. The The radiation patterns of E-plane and H-plane of the
voltage standing wave ratio of the proposed antenna is proposed antenna have been depicted in Fig. 9. It is observed
1.017 which represents that a good impedance matching is that maximum power is broadly radiated with wide beam
obtained at 37 GHz resonant frequency. width at 37 GHz center frequency. The values of the main
The simulated total efficiency and radiation efficiency has lobe magnitude, main lobe direction, and 3 dB angular width
been shown in Fig. 8 with respect to frequency from 32 to are about 2.58dBi, 74.0 degree, and 92.9 degrees, respectively,
42 GHz. At 37 GHz center frequency, the total and radiation which have been achieved for the H-plane. Furthermore, main
efficiency is 0.1016 dB and 0.1023 dB, respectively. lobe magnitude, main lobe direction, and 3 dB angular width

Fig. 5  The S11 characteristics

of the proposed antenna

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Fig. 6  The gain vs frequency

characteristics of the proposed
antenna

are about 6.67dBi, 24.0 degree, and 21.8 degree obtained for reflection coefficient −43.05 dB compared with existing
the E-plane at 37 GHz resonant frequency. reported antennas. It is observed that the proposed antenna
The performance comparison between the proposed has higher performance in terms of return loss, gain, and
antenna and some of the presented antennas in terms of size, impedance bandwidth compared with the reported ones.
frequency, return loss, gain, and impedance bandwidth is The wider impedance bandwidth and adequate gain of the
shown in Table 2. The proposed antenna has higher gain proposed antenna make it an excellent candidate for future
8.245dBi, larger impedance bandwidth 16.22%, and minimal 5G cellular communication.

Fig. 7  The VSWR vs frequency

characteristics of the proposed
antenna

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Plasmonics (2021) 16:1417–1425 1423

Fig. 8  The radiation efficiency

vs frequency characteristics of
the proposed antenna

Fig. 9  The E-plane and H-plane characteristics of the proposed

antenna

Table 2  Comparative analysis Reference Size ­(mm2) Frequency (GHz) Return loss (dB) Gain (dB) Bandwidth (%)
with previous works
[16] 7.2 × 5 37/54 −25.8/−27.8 5.5/6 14.86/16.05
[17] 4.96 × 6.86 25/37 −25.73/−25.77 6.71/1.72 8/16.22
[19] 9.8 × 7 37 −36 6.7 3.78
[23] 30.25 × 9.5 37 −45.5 5.75 2.70
[25] – 38 −28 6.5 7.14
[26] 10 × 10 60 − 31.45 6.03 5.48
Proposed work 37 −43.5 8.25 16.22

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1424 Plasmonics (2021) 16:1417–1425

Conclusion behaviour for future 5G mobile communication networks. Prog

Electromagn Res 89:133–147
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A single-band–slotted microstrip patch antenna for 5G implementation of miniaturized wideband microstrip patch antenna
cellular communication has been proposed and analyzed for high-speed terahertz applications. J Comput Electron 1–7
at 37 GHz resonant frequency. The antenna performance 9. Peng M, Zhao A (2018) High performance 5G millimeter-
wave antenna array for 37–40 GHz mobile application. In 2018
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inverted T slot) have been used to enhance the impedance Singh S, Akdeniz MR, Koucheryavy Y (2017) On the temporal
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and width also have been analyzed and investigated. The 11. Naderpour R, Vehmas J, Nguyen S, Järveläinen J, Haneda K
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8.245 dB, and impedance bandwidth of 16.22% at 37 GHz at 15, 28 and 60 GHz. In 2016 IEEE 27th annual international
symposium on personal, indoor, and mobile radio communications
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13. Shamim SM, Hossain MS, Ta-seen GMK, Miah MBA, Uddin MS
Author Contribution S. M. Shamim designed and performed the
(2018) Performance analysis of omni-directional and directional
experiments, derived the models, and analyzed the data. Umme Salma
power delay profile for millimeter wave 5G cellular networks
Dina, and Nahid Arafin worked out almost all of the technical details
in LOS environment. In 2018 International conference on
and performed the numerical calculations for the suggested experiment.
advancement in electrical and electronic engineering (ICAEEE)
S. M. Shamim wrote the manuscript in consultation with Umme Salma
(pp. 1–4). IEEE
Dina, Nahid Arafin, and Mst. Sumia Sultana. All the authors discussed
14. Use of spectrum bands above 24 GHz for mobile radio services,
the results and commented on the manuscript.
GN Docket No. 14–177, Fifth Report and Order, FCC 19–30 (rel.
Apr. 15, 2019)
Declarations 15. Use of Spectrum Bands Above 24 GHz For Mobile Radio
Services, et al., Report and order and further notice of proposed
Conflict of Interest The authors declare that they have no conflict of rulemaking, 31 FCC Rcd 8014 (2016) (Spectrum Frontiers First
interest. Report and Order)
16. Lodro Z, Shah N, Mahar E, Tirmizi SB, Lodro M (2019)
mmWave novel multiband microstrip patch antenna design for
5G communication. In 2019 2nd International conference on
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