Abstract
This paper presents a compact integrated self-multiplexing antenna capable of operating across both the sub-6 GHz and millimeter-wave bands of the 5G frequency spectrum. The sub-6 GHz unit elements are alternately arranged with different structural dimensions to achieve eight distinct operating frequencies within the sub-6 GHz spectrum. Between each pair of sub-6 GHz unit elements, millimeter-wave unit elements of varying dimensions are incorporated to generate radiations at eight distinct frequencies in the millimeter-wave band. The first eight ports (P1–P8) operate at eight distinct frequencies of sub-6 GHz spectrum, whereas the remaining eight ports (P9–P16) are designed to radiate at eight distinct millimeter-wave frequencies. Electromagnetic waves in the sub-6 GHz spectrum are obtained by means of exciting TE110 mode in the modified eighth-mode substrate integrated waveguide (EMSIW) cavity resonators, while millimeter-wave radiation is achieved through the hybrid TE730 and TE750 modes of the EMSIW cavity resonators. The inter-port isolations better than 40 dB and 20 dB are obtained across the sub-6 GHz and millimeter-wave spectrum, respectively. This integrated placement of millimeter-wave elements efficiently utilizes the available substrate area while maintaining high inter-port isolation across the entire frequency spectrum. The design antenna system has an overall footprint of 0.425\(\:{\varvec{\lambda\:}}_{\varvec{g}}^{2}\), where \(\:{\varvec{\lambda\:}}_{\varvec{g}}\) corresponds to the guided wavelength at the lowest operating frequency. Owing to its compact dimensions, simple integrated design and excellent performance, the proposed self-multiplexing antenna emerges as a promising candidate for multiband communication systems operating in sub-6 GHz and millimeter-wave 5G spectrum.
Data availability
The datasets used and/or analyzed during the current study available from the corresponding author on reasonable request.
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Acknowledgements
This work was supported in-part by the Graphic Era (Deemed to be) University, Dehradun, India, and Science and Engineering Research Board (SERB), Government of India, through Core Research Grant (CRG/2023/000446).
Funding
Open access funding provided by Manipal Academy of Higher Education, Manipal. This research received no external funding.
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Conception, design, data collection, analysis, and simulation were initially carried out by G.S., A.K., S.R., V.K., A.M., S.K. and T.A. All authors contributed to complete the writing and presentation of the whole manuscript.
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Srivastava, G., Kumar, A., Rana, S. et al. Compact integrated self-multiplexing antenna for sub-6 GHz and millimeter wave 5G frequency spectrum. Sci Rep (2026). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-026-35031-5
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-026-35031-5
