A more accurate, low-cost 39 GHz beamforming transceiver for 5G communications

Although research groups including the current

a

team have until now largely focused on developing 28 GHz systems, 39 GHz will be another important frequency band for realizing 5G in many parts of the world.

The new transceiver is based on a 64-element (4 x 16) phased-array design. Its built-in gain phase calibration means that it can improve beamforming accuracy, and thereby reduce undesired radiation and boost signal strength.

Fabricated in a standard 65-nanometer CMOS process, the transceiver's low-cost silicon-based components make it ideal for mass production—a key consideration for accelerated deployment of 5G technologies.

The researchers showed that the built-in calibration has a very low root-mean-square (RMS) phase error of 0.08°. This figure is an order of magnitude lower than previous comparable results. While transceivers developed to date typically suffer from high gain variation of more than 1 dB, the new model has a maximum gain variation of just 0.04 dB over the full 360° tuning range.

https://phys.org/news/2019-06-accurate-low-cost-ghz-beamforming-transceiver.html