Advanced Multifunctional Antennas for 5G and Beyond

Advanced multifunctional antennas are capable of providing full flexibilities of frequency, polarization and radiation patterns, with possibly steerable beams, to satisfy the desired specifications in modern intelligent systems for applications of 5G communication, wearable systems, Internet of Things (IoT) and future sensing technologies. 5G antennas designed with advanced scalability and new materials are highly expected to cater such emerging applications. Recent advancement in materials and manufacturing techniques has demonstrated new directions of a possible mechanism for diverse future 5G mobile antennas. This paper presents the expected performance of the next generation antennas, the potential design challenges to be tackled, as well as the application scenarios for the future wireless systems. In addition, recent advancement in multifunctional antennas for future communications are also introduced and discussed. For demonstration, microwave lens antennas are presented, which are believed to be the game changer for 5G and beyond.