A Novel Differentially Fed Dual-Polarized Filtering Magneto-Electric Dipole Antenna for 5G Base Station Applications

In this article, a compact differentially fed ±45° dual-polarized filtering magneto-electric (ME) dipole antenna with improved harmonic suppression is proposed and analyzed. First, the fusion of loop-slot dipole and half-wave vibrator is calculated and mentioned to furnish theoretical guidance. Then, by reasonably placing two pairs of second-order step impedance feedlines and a loop-slot patch, a corresponding two-mode loop-vibrator combination filtering antenna with an upper radiation null is naturally constructed. Moreover, simply by loading four open-circuit stubs at the center of octagonal slot patch edge, another extra resonance mode and radiation null in the upper band can be simultaneously obtained. Later, through hiring the reconstructed third-order stub-loaded-resonator (SLR) feedlines, wideband harmonic suppression along with a third radiation null is unaffectedly achieved. Finally, the optimized antenna is fabricated and tested. The measured results reveal it realizes a wideband impedance bandwidth of 42.0% (2.78–4.26 GHz) and a high port isolation of 35 dB. Also, the length of its harmonic suppression is measured from 4.56 to 7 GHz, while the depth reaches more than 20 dB. In addition, the measured gain and radiation efficiency curves in the operating band are relatively stable and both are at a high average value (8.2 dBi, 85%).