Design of Minkowski Array Microstrip Fractal Antenna at 3.5 GHz Frequency for 5G Communication System

Technological developments in the field of telecommunications are experiencing rapid progress, especially the presence of 5G technology as a fifth generation cellular communication system that has many advantages at the World Radiocommunication Conference (WRC) in 2015, 5G candidate frequency bands below 6 GHz have been widely discussed, and the range the following frequencies have been suggested: 470–694, 1427–1518, 3300–3800, and 4500–4990 MHz. One of recommendation of resonant frequency is 3.5 GHz, as it is acceptable in most countries. Therefore, a reliable communication network is needed, especially in the 3.5 GHz frequency band for fifth generation applications. Antena is one of the important communication components in radio communication system. Mikrostrip Antena is a type of Antena that is currently growing because it has the advantage of having a light weight and low profile. This paper proposed development of mikrostrip Antena using the fractal method, increase the gain using the Array method, and achieve the target return loss ≤ -10 dB, VSWR ≤ 2, and gain ≥ 5 dB at frequency of 3.5 GHz for 5G communication sytsem. Proposed Antena is designed using a duroid R5880 substrate with a dielectric constant value of 2.2, a dielectric loss (tan loss) of 0.0009 and a substrate thickness (h) of 1.57 mm. This study resulted in a reduction in Antena dimensions until 53.76% with return loss of -42.48 dB, VSWR 1.02, and a gain of 8.46 dB. The results obtained in this design meet the specifications of the predetermined targets.