A Cost-Efficient 28 GHz Integrated Antenna Array With Full Impedance Matrix Characterization for 5G NR

Abstract

A 2x2 integrated antenna array operating at 28 GHz with 4 GHz bandwidth is presented. Conventional PCB technology is used to realize the antenna board, with low fabrication cost by minimizing the number of layers and vias. To overcome limited bandwidth and high mutual coupling, several techniques are used: proximity coupled feedings, slotted patches, and defected ground. The S-matrix and radiation patterns of the standalone antenna prototype are measured before being attached to the IC. The performed S-matrix measurement is a very first of a kind among so far reported integrated arrays at 28 GHz. The measurements confirm a mutual coupling level less than -12 dB. This characterization is used to estimate the performance of the driving power amplifiers. The analysis confirms that the antenna array is well-matched to the IC output, and as a result, the performance of the array does not degrade under beam scanning. The integrated antenna can be used as a tile module to construct larger arrays in arbitrary configurations.

High Capacity Real-Time Hybrid Optical-Wireless 5G Fronthaul with Dynamic Beam Steering

“…1(a). At the CO, an ARoF baseband unit (BBU) maps M-QAM (M ∈ [4,256]) symbols originating from a random bit stream onto 4096 OFDM subcarriers (3196 of which are active) with a spacing of ∆ f = 120 kHz. Furthermore, the BBU includes a digital to analog converter (DAC) and an analog to digital converter (ADC), generating and receiving in-phase and quadrature (IQ) baseband signals respectively.…”

“…An intermediate frequency (IF) unit incorporates an IQ modulator and demodulator (IQ MOD/DMOD ) and a tunable vector signal generator performing frequency up-and downconversion between baseband and f IF . For the conducted experiment, four different 5G OFDM waveforms are generated and detected centered at a fixed f IF = 5.2 GHz with M = [4,16] and IF bandwidths of 200 and 400 MHz.…”

Cost-Effective Surface-Mount Patch Antenna With Ring Slot Using Ball Grid Array Packaging for 5g Millimeter-Wave Applications

“…In addition, the multi-layer configuration in [9,[15][16][17] also increases the cost. The work based on singlelayer FR4 shows the advantage of ultra-low-cost.…”

“…On the other hand, the cost is one of the main challenges for 5G millimeter-wave antennas due to the high loss of high-frequency band. Recently, many cost-effective antennas have been reported [15][16][17][18][19]. FR4 substrate can be seen as an effective way to reduce costs.…”

A Cost-Effective Antenna-in-Package Design With a 4 × 4 Dual-Polarized High Isolation Patch Array for 5G mmWave Applications

“…These efforts can be an effective solution for low-integration small-scale AiP applications. Unfortunately, the literatures in [20]- [23] do not consider the dual-polarized diversity, and the work in [24] does not satisfy the required isolation for dualpolarization despite supporting the diversity. Note that the minimum required isolation in mmWave systems is as high as 24 dB when the 256-QAM modulation scheme is used [25].…”