516 IEEE ANTENNAS AND WIRELESS PROPAGATION LETTERS, VOL. 21, NO.

3, MARCH 2022

A Double-Fold 7×8 Butler Matrix-Fed Multibeam

Antenna With a Boresight Beam for 5G Applications
Ming Wu, Bing Zhang , Senior Member, IEEE, Yanping Zhou , and Kama Huang , Senior Member, IEEE

Abstract—A substrate integrated waveguide multibeam antenna

fed by a double-fold 7×8 Butler matrix (BM) beam-forming net-
work (BFN) is presented. The proposed antenna is composed of
a 7×8 BM feeding network and an 8×8 slot array. By merging
the two central input ports of the BM into one port, the BM can
provide output signals with equal phase, which can generate a
boresight beam. In order to reduce the size of the antenna, the
BM is folded twice into a three-layer structure. Measured results
show that the proposed antenna has impedance bandwidth of
29.5 ∼ 30.5 GHz, whereas the gain lies in the range of 13.2–17.3
dBi. Seven beams, including a boresight beam, pointing from −58°
to 58° are achieved. Compared with counterparts, the proposed
antenna features boresight radiation and miniaturized size. It is
a good candidate for the fifth-generation (5G) mobile network
applications.
Index Terms—Butler matrix (BM), fifth-generation mobile
network (5G), multibeam antenna, substrate integrated waveguide
(SIW). Fig. 1. Schematic of the proposed multibeam antenna (H: 90° hybrid).

TABLE I
I. INTRODUCTION DIMENSIONS OF THE PROPOSED ANTENNA IN FIG. 2 (UNIT: mm)
ITH the development of fifth-generation (5G)
W technology, millimeter-wave antennas have attracted
much attention [1]. Because of the short wavelength and large
propagation loss, multibeam antennas or scanning beam anten-
nas are needed for better signal coverage. The antenna’s beam
scan ability is from the tunable equal phase front of the aperture
field, which can be realized by phase shifters [2]. The Rotman
lens, reflector, and Butler matrix (BM) are typical examples of
phase shifting networks [3]–[5]. The Rotman lens is composed
of a focal curve, an array curve, and delay lines. It is attractive
because of its simple design, compact size, and flexibility in the
layout dealing with numerous ports [6]. The reflector antenna
has advantages of high directivity, broad bandwidth, mature
processing technology, and low manufacturing cost [7], [8].
Compared with above-mentioned counterparts, the BM has
relatively balanced transmission properties and modularized
configuration. Its advantages become more obvious when dense
beam coverage and modularized antenna design are required.
Works on BMs have been widely reported. For example,
a broadband scanning function is realized by feeding the
short-ended magnetoelectric dipole array with a BM [9].
Two-dimensional beam scanning is achieved by connecting the
E-plane and H-plane sub-beamforming networks (BFN) [10],
Manuscript received December 4, 2021; accepted December 16, 2021. Date
of publication December 21, 2021; date of current version March 3, 2022. This [11]. In [12], by adopting a double-layer 4×8 BM, the antenna’s
work was supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China under size is dramatically reduced with suppressed sidelobe level
Grant 62171301. (Corresponding author: Bing Zhang.) (SLL). Double-layer BMs are reported in [13] and [14]. In [15],
The authors are with the College of Electronics and Information Engineer- by using an asymmetric 4×4 BM, the function of an 8×8 BM is
ing, Sichuan University, Chengdu 610065, China (e-mail: wumin@stu.scu.
edu.cn; bzhang0609@hotmail.com; zhouyanping87@126.com; kmhuang@
realized on a single-layer printed circuit board (PCB), whose di-
scu.edu.cn). mensions are significantly reduced. Moreover, efforts have been
Digital Object Identifier 10.1109/LAWP.2021.3136913 taken to miniaturize the BM from aspects of material and process

1536-1225 © 2021 IEEE. Personal use is permitted, but republication/redistribution requires IEEE permission.
See https://www.ieee.org/publications/rights/index.html for more information.

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WU et al.: DOUBLE-FOLD 7×8 BUTLER MATRIX-FED MULTIBEAM ANTENNA WITH A BORESIGHT BEAM FOR 5G APPLICATIONS
Fig. 2. Configuration of the proposed multibeam antenna.
Fig. 3. E-field distribution of the slot transition in a half cycle at 30 GHz:
(a) t = 0 and (b) t = π/4.
[16], [17]. An integrated multibeam antenna with a double-layer
BM is proposed, which reduces the complexity of a large-scale
multiple-input–multiple-output system [18]. In [19], the printed
ridge gap waveguide is used to build wideband components
to realize a broadband BM. In [20], a broadband switchable
beam antenna is designed. The merit of this antenna is the
design of a novel broadband hybrid coupler with arbitrary
phase tuning. The above-mentioned BMs cannot provide output
signals with equal phase, which is accountable for a boresight
beam. Although methods for generating the boresight beam
have been proposed [21]–[24], they suffer from drawbacks of
a small number of beams, narrow beam coverage angle, and
undesirable antenna gain.
In 5G communication, the dominant channel is from the line-
of-sight. Hence, for a 5G multibeam antenna, a boresight beam is
required. This letter proposes a multibeam antenna based on the
substrate integrated waveguide (SIW) structure. A three-layer
7 × 8 BM is designed to feed a SIW slot array. To produce the
boresight beam, the two central input ports of an 8×8 BM are
merged into one port, which leads to equal phase at output ports.
The size of the BM is effectively reduced by folding it twice
into a three-layer structure. The letter is organized as follows.
Section II introduces the design of the antenna. Section III is
on the fabrication and measurement. Section IV concludes the
letter.
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517
TABLE II
COMPARISON BETWEEN MULTIBEAM ANTENNAS
Freq.: frequency, NSB.; number of beams; PD.: planar dimensions; BC.: beam coverage;
BB.: boresight beam.
II. PROPOSED MULTIBEAM ANTENNA
A. Configuration of the Proposed Multibeam Antenna
Fig. 1 shows the schematic of the proposed multibeam
antenna. It uses a 7×8 BM as the BFN and an 8×8 SIW slot
array. To reduce the antenna size, the 7×8 BM is folded twice
along the green line. The configuration of the proposed SIW
multibeam antenna is shown in Fig. 2. Physical representatives of
the double-fold BM are shown as three stacked layers of SIW in
Fig. 2. Dimensions of the proposed antenna are listed in Table I.
The BM consists of 12 90° hybrids, 25 crossovers, two 22.5°
phase shifters, four 45° phase shifters, four 67.5° phase shifters,
and 25 crossovers. The radiating array is composed of eight
linear slot arrays. Rogers 5880 (εr = 2.2 and tan δ = 0.0009) is
used as the substrate. The proposed antenna includes three layers
of SIWs of the same thickness 0.508 mm. The transition between
each layer is realized by slot coupling. Fig. 3 shows the electric
field distribution of the slot transition between two layers of SIW
in a half cycle. Limited by the boundary condition, when the sig-
nal propagates from the lower to the upper SIW, the E-field dis-
tribution is similar with that of a slot antenna in Fig. 3(a) and (b).
A parametric study is conducted to illustrate the influence of
slot dimension on the slot transition’s frequency response. In
Fig. 4(a), when the slot length sl varies from 3.9 to 4.3 mm, the
|S11 | varies in the range of −54.5 to −12.4 dB, the |S21 | varies in
518 IEEE ANTENNAS AND WIRELESS PROPAGATION LETTERS, VOL. 21, NO. 3, MARCH 2022

Fig. 4. Simulated reflection and transmission coefficients of the slot transition. (a) Slot length sl as the variable. (b) Slot offset distance sy as the variable. (c) Slot
width sw as the variable.

Fig. 5. Simulated phase differences at the output ports of the 7×8 BM BFN.

Fig. 8. Simulated and measured isolation coefficients of different ports.

(a) Port #1 excites. (b) Port #2 excites. (c) Port #3 excites. (d) Port #4 excites.

the |S11 | varies in the range of −54.5 to −7.5 dB, the |S21 |
varies in the range of −1.4 to −0.5 dB. In our design, we choose
sl = 4.3 mm, sy = 0.45 mm, and sw = 0.1 mm, respectively,
Fig. 6. Photographs of the fabricated antenna. (a) Top view. (b) Bottom view. which is a compromise between the slot’s reflection and trans-
mission coefficients and the fabrication tolerance.

B. Design of the Double-Fold 7 × 8 BM

We use SIW to implement the BM BFN. Because the phase
difference between the output ports can be tuned by exciting
different input port, the antenna array’s equal phase front can
thus be titled, which is accountable for the scanning beam. In
the SIW, the propagation constant can be calculated as
 
√
2π εr f 2  π 2
β(f ) = − (1)
300 w
where f is the operating frequency, w is the width of the SIW, and
Fig. 7. Simulated and measured reflection coefficients of the fabricated an-
εr is the relative permittivity. When the SIW’s length l is known,
tenna array. the phase difference between two outports can be obtained by
(2), in which w1 and w2 are the physical width of the two output
ports, respectively
the range of −0.8 to −0.5 dB. In Fig. 4(b), when the slot length sy ⎡
varies from 0.25 to 1.05 mm, the |S11 | varies in the range of −54.5  √   2
2π εr f 2 π
to −9.5 dB, the |S21 | varies in the range of −1.1 to −0.5 dB. In ϕ(f ) = l ⎣ −
Fig. 4(c), when the slot length sw varies from 0.1 to 0.5 mm, 300 w1

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WU et al.: DOUBLE-FOLD 7×8 BUTLER MATRIX-FED MULTIBEAM ANTENNA WITH A BORESIGHT BEAM FOR 5G APPLICATIONS
Fig. 9. Simulated and measured radiation patterns of the proposed antenna. (a) 29.5 GHz. (b) 30 GHz. (c) 30.5 GHz.
 ⎤
√   2
2π εr f 2 π ⎦.
− −
300 w2
Then, we can get the beam position θn according to
 
δn
θn = arcsin −
kd
where δ n is the phase gradient provided by the corresponding nth
input port, k is the wave constant, and d is the distance between
adjacent antenna elements. To synthesize a boresight beam, we
merge the two central input ports #1’ and #2’ as port #4 in Fig. 1.
−→
En = P1 n exp(−jω1 n ) + P2 n exp(−jω2 n ). (4)
The synthesized electric field of the 7×8 BM can be calculated
by (4), in which n indicates the number of the output ports
in Fig. 1, P1’n represents the power amplitude generated by
port #1’ at the nth output port, and ω 1’n represents the phase
generated by port #1’ at the nth output port. P2’n represents the
power amplitude generated by port #2’ at the nth output port,
and ω 2’n represents the phase generated by port #2’ at the nth
output port. It can be calculated that by merging ports #1’ and #2’
into port #4, the output ports will have signal of equal phase and
amplitude when port #4 excites. As a result, a boresight beam is
synthesized. In order to reduce the size of the antenna, the BM
was folded twice along the green lines in Fig. 1 into three layers.
Fig. 5 shows simulated phase differences at the output ports
of the double-fold 7×8 BM BFN within 29.5–30.5 GHz. It
can be seen that when different input ports are excited, phase
differences of 0°, ±67.5°, ±112.5°, and ±157.5° are generated
between the output ports, respectively. The required boresight
beam is produced by the 0° phase difference between output
ports when input port # 4 excites, which can also be verified
by (4).
III. FABRICATION AND MEASUREMENT OF THE PROPOSED
MULTIBEAM ANTENNA
A prototype is fabricated to verify the antenna’s performance.
Fig. 6(a) and (b) shows the top view and bottom view of the fabri-
cated antenna. It is measured in the anechoic chamber at Sichuan
University. Figs. 7 and 8 shows the simulated and measured
reflection and isolation coefficients. For the symmetric geome-
try, the S-parameter of only half of the input ports is presented
for a clear illustration. In both simulation and measurement,
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519
good matching is observed from 29.5–30.5 GHz when each port
(2) excites. Fig. 9 demonstrates radiation patterns of the proposed
antenna at 29.5, 30, and 30.5 GHz, respectively. In Fig. 9(a), a
boresight beam with six squint beams pointing at ±61°, ±38°,
±22°, and 0° are observed at 29.5 GHz. The SLL is below
−7.7 dB for all beams. In Fig. 9(b), seven beams pointing
(3) at ±58°, ±38°, ±23°, and 0° are observed at 30 GHz. The
SLL is below −10 dB. In Fig. 9(c), the beam coverage is at
±57°, ±39°, ±22°, and 0°. The SLL is below −7.1 dB. The
antenna’s gain varies from 13.2 to 17.3 dBi in the bandwidth of
29.5 – 30.5 GHz for all the beams. The negligible discrepancy
between simulated and measured antenna performance is from
the measurement setup. The 2.92 mm connector used in antenna
measurement gives rise to discontinuity of the electromagnetic
wave propagation, which leads to deteriorated matching and
decreased antenna gain.
A comparison between the proposed multibeam antenna and
counterparts is carried out in Table II. The proposed antenna out-
performs in beam coverage and antenna gain. With a boresight
beam and six squint beams, the proposed antenna ensures a sta-
ble line-of-sight channel with wide enough beam coverage. The
double-fold BM BFN is appreciated in mobile terminals where
the antenna size is a figure of merit. In general, the proposed
antenna features compact size, wide-angle beam coverage, a
boresight beam, and desirable gain.
IV. CONCLUSION
A SIW multibeam antenna with a boresight beam fed by a
double-fold 7×8 BM BFN is proposed. By merging the two
central input ports of an 8×8 BM BFN into one port, the BM
BFN can produce phase differences of 0°, ±67.5°, ±112.5°,
and ±157.5° between output ports. A boresight beam and six
squint beams are generated. This ensures the stable line-of-sight
communication with beam scan ability. The SIW 7×8 BM is
folded twice into three layers to minimize the antenna size.
The measurement result verifies that the proposed multibeam
antenna can be well applied in 5G mobile terminals.
ACKNOWLEDGMENT
The authors would like to thank the assistance from Dr. Y.
Cheng and Prof. Y. Dong from UESTC.
520 IEEE ANTENNAS AND WIRELESS PROPAGATION LETTERS, VOL. 21, NO. 3, MARCH 2022
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