Antenna assembly and communication system

An antenna assembly comprising:

• a regular array of at least sixteen antenna elements, the sixteen antenna elements arranged in an array of four substantially parallel rows and four substantially parallel columns on a first major surface of a substrate, the regular array of sixteen antenna elements defining a diagonal plane of symmetry substantially orthogonal to the first major surface and making an angle of between about 40 degrees and 50 degrees with the rows of antenna elements;
• and
• a beam shaping element disposed on and substantially covering the regular array of at least sixteen antenna elements, the beam shaping element and the sixteen antenna elements defining a gap D therebetween, 2 mm≤D≤3 mm, the beam shaping element having a dielectric permittivity of between about 1.2 and about 2 at a frequency of about 28 GHz, and a loss tangent of between about 0.001 and about 0.005,
• such that when the antenna assembly steers a beam in the plane of symmetry along a first direction making an angle of between about 40 degrees and about 50 degrees with a normal to the first major surface, then the steered beam attains a maximum gain at least when a maximum phase difference between the sixteen antenna elements is greater than by at least 2% as compared to a comparative antenna assembly that has a same construction except that it does not include the beam shaping element.