Co-design of unconventional array architectures and antenna elements for 5G base stations

An innovative methodological paradigm is proposed for the design of unconventional antenna systems for future 5G base stations. In such a co-design strategy, the antenna element (a spline-shaped patch embedded in a finite array model) and the overall irregularly clustered-array layout are simultaneously synthesized through a multi-objective antenna-shape-optimization combined with a sub-arraying technique based on a new singleobjective integer-coded Genetic Algorithm able to intrinsically handle constraints on the cluster shapes/types. Selected numerical examples, drawn from an exhaustive design process, are presented to assess the advantages and the effectiveness of the proposed co-design scheme in view of the final manufacturing of 5G base stations thanks to its capability to take into account the impact of mutual coupling, non-ideal antenna patterns, and implementation limitations .