Design of True Time Delay Millimeter Wave Beamformers for 5G Multibeam Phased Arrays

Abstract

Millimeter wave (mm-Wave) technology is likely the key enabler of 5G and early 6G wireless systems. The high throughput, high capacity, and low latency that can be achieved, when mm-Waves are utilized, makes them the most promising backhaul as well as fronthaul solutions for the communication between small cells and base stations or between base stations and the gateway. Depending on the channel properties different communication systems (e.g., beamforming and MIMO) can accordingly offer the best solution. In this work, our goal is to design millimeter wave beamformers for switched beam phased arrays as hybrid beamforming stages. Specifically, three different analog beamforming techniques for the frequency range of 27–33 GHz are presented. First, a novel compact multilayer Blass matrix is proposed. Second, a modified dummy-ports free, highly efficient Rotman lens is introduced. Finally, a three-layer true-time-delay tree topology inspired by microwave photonics is presented.

Document Details

Document Type
Pub Defense Publication
Publication Date
Aug 18, 2020
Source ID
10.3390/electronics9081331

Entities

People

  • Constantinos L. Zekios
  • Dimitrios I. Lialios
  • George A. Kyriacou
  • Konstantinos D. Paschaloudis
  • Nikolaos Ntetsikas
  • Stavros V. Georgakopoulos

Organizations

  • Air Force Office of Scientific Research

Tags

Fields of Study

  • Engineering

Readers

  • Atmospheric Science / Meteorology, specifically Wind Wave Turbulence.
  • Phased Array Antenna Design.
  • Radio communications and signal processing.

Technology Areas

  • 5G
  • 5G - Internet of Things