SIW Technology for 5G Antenna Applications and Beyond—A Critical Review

Abstract

With the current advancements in millimeter wave communication, low-profile structure and power handling capability at high frequencies have become the prime focus for the researchers. substrate integrated waveguide (SIWs), providing better efficiency by exhibiting high-quality factors and confining EM waves, have become a favorable technology in the antenna regime. Recently, SIWs along with liquid metals have facilitated reconfigurability with extremely thin substrate materials. Antenna on-chip (AOC) using Complementary Metal Oxide Semiconductor (CMOS) technologies along with Multiple Input and Multiple output (MIMO) applications are showing great potential for researchers in this domain. This review article intends to provide a comprehensive overview of the different types of SIW antennas operating in the 5G band, various SIW topologies, detailed analysis of gain, bandwidth, and isolation. Slotted SIW antennas give exceptional isolation between the bands and low cross-polarization levels while horn antenna arrays offer wide coverage. Slow wave SIW has achieved an 80% reduction in size with the usage of multi-antipodal metalized blinds via holes and distributed metal strips. Details on advancement in the artificial intelligence (AI) based SIW antennas are also presented in brief.