Figure 1: Number of papers published on IEEE Xplore with keywords “antenna” AND “beam” AND “steering” (Data till March 2024).
Several electronic beam-steering antennas are described in the literature using different innovative techniques such as phase-shifting, multi-feed, frequency selective surfaces, and metasurfaces. Different review studies have been conducted by different groups focusing on a single category such as reconfigurable leaky-wave antennas, phased arrays, and metasurfaces for beam-steering.
For ease of understanding and to establish a better comparison between different technologies, in this article, we have classified all the electronic beam-steering antenna techniques into four main categories, namely, (i) phased array antennas, (ii) quasi-optical systems, (iii) leaky-wave antennas, and (iv) metasurfaces, see Figure 2. This article gives an overview of the working principle of technology followed by state-of-the-art examples from the literature. Finally, we compare the capabilities and limitations of four different technologies based on real-life applications within beyond-5G networks.