This paper proposes a 3D radiation pattern reconfigurable antenna (RPRA) and a reconfigurable phased array (RPA) for 5G mobile communication. The antenna and array are working at 28 GHz, which is selected as a 5G communication band in many countries. The proposed phased array will be applied as sensors to find out the optimal transmitting⁻receiving angle in a randomly changed cellular wireless scenarios. The RPRA and RPA are fed by Substrate Integrated Waveguide (SIW) and have three switchable radiation modes: Broadside 1, Broadside 2 and Endfire. The three modes correspond to three different radiation patterns and each of them covers a different area in the Azimuth plane. An eight-element phased array constructed by the proposed RPRA, which is able to switch beam in Azimuth plane and scan in the Elevation plane, is also presented in this paper. The proposed RPA is able to provide much higher spatial coverage than the conventional phased arrays and without additional feeding and phase shifting networks. The beam switching is realized by the PIN diodes. The proposed antenna and array have planer structures and require small clearance on the ground plane which makes them compatible with mobile phones. The simulations show good performance for both RPRA and RPA.
Keywords: 5G mobile communication; phased array; radiation pattern reconfigurable antenna; transmission angle sensing.