60-GHz Slot Array Antenna with Simplified Feeding Network for 5G RedCap

Array antennas are prominent candidates for millimeter-wave applications due to their indispensable highgain radiation. While the extreme wideband capability of conventional array antennas based on traditional feeding networks is advantageous for high-capacity networks, it constitutes a severe hardware overspill and cost limitation for emerging 5G Reduced Capability (RedCap) scenarios requiring lightweight terminals. For the fundamental suppression of this hardware redundancy, a design strategy that strategically relaxes wideband constraints is proposed to construct a lightweight 60-GHz slot array antenna. The structural simplification is achieved by exploiting the physical fact that a minor fractional bandwidth at the V-band natively provides sufficient absolute bandwidth, thereby strictly eliminating the necessity for complex feeding networks. The proposed antenna comprises a cascaded multi-height cavity topology, integrating a two-stage impedance-matching transition and a streamlined 8 -way power divider to meticulously regulate the electromagnetic boundaries for uniform aperture illumination. Benefiting from this severely simplified feed architecture, the final 8 × 16 array achieves a highly compact radiating aperture of 42.4 × 35.2 mm2, demonstrating extensive application potential across costsensitive narrowband 5 G scenarios. Simulated results demonstrate a solid - 1 0 ~ d B impedance bandwidth from 57.8 GHz to 62.0 GHz, concurrently maintaining a stable realized gain ranging from 24.8 dBi to 27.1 dBi and a highly directive pencil beam.