High-Gain and Wideband Magnetoelectric E-band Conical-Beam Aerodynamic Antenna for UAV-Assisted 6G Internet-of-Things Networks

초록

The integration of Internet-of-Things (IoT) with sixth-generation (6G) wireless technology has recently been represented as a major advancement to achieve Internet-of-Everything (IoE). Different with traditional networks, 6G IoT is expected to use Unmanned-Aerial-Vehicle (UAV) for enhancing communication with ground-based users/devices. However, ensuring reliable communication between UAVs acting as aerial-base-stations (ABS) and ground users poses significant challenges, requiring innovative approaches for maintaining ubiquitous connectivity and robust deployment capabilities in complex environments. This paper presents a high-gain and wideband aerodynamic antenna with conical-beam (CB) radiation covering entire E-band spectrum for enhancing aerial-to-ground coverage of UAV-assisted 6G IoT networks. By simultaneously multi-exciting a grounded segmented dual-ring structure and architecting a multiple-stage circular-cavity-substrate-integrated-waveguide (CCSIW) feeding network, proposed antenna performs as a circular-array of complementary magnetoelectric radiating sources, resulting to an exceptional high-gain and wideband CB while still upholding a fully planar aerodynamic configuration. Numerical and experimental investigation revealed that proposed structure performs a 10-dB impedance bandwidth of 59.38-89.95 GHz (40.9%) with highly stable CB radiation across entire operating frequency and high peak gain of 12.1 dBi at 74.4 GHz; which surpass other state-of-the-art CB planar antennas and make it become a potential candidate for enhancing aerial-to-ground coverage for UAV-assisted 6G IoT networks.

키워드