Beam-steering antenna takes mobile comms beyond 5G

Scientists at the University of Birmingham have revealed a new beam-steering antenna that increases the efficiency of data transmission for ‘beyond 5G’ — and opens up a range of frequencies for mobile communications that are inaccessible to currently used technologies. The antenna was developed by Dr James Churm, Dr Muhammad Rabbani and Professor Alexandros Feresidis as a solution for fixed, base station antennas, for which current technology shows reduced efficiency at higher frequencies, limiting the use of these frequencies for long-distance transmission.

Around the size of an iPhone, the technology uses a metamaterial, made from a metal sheet with an array of regularly spaced holes that are micrometres in diameter. An actuator controls the height of a cavity within the metamaterial, delivering micrometre movements and, according to its position, the antenna will control the deflection of the beam of a radio wave — effectively concentrating the beam into a highly directive signal and then redirecting this energy as desired, while also increasing the efficiency of transmission.

The team’s experimental results, recently presented at the 3rd International Union of Radio Science Atlantic/Asia-Pacific Radio Science Meeting, show the device can provide continuous ‘wide-angle’ beam steering, allowing it to track a moving mobile phone user in the same way that a satellite dish turns to track a moving object, but with significantly enhanced speeds.

The technology has demonstrated vast improvements in data transmission efficiency at frequencies ranging across the millimetre wave spectrum, specifically those identified for 5G (mmWave) and 6G, where high efficiency is currently only achievable using slow, mechanically steered antenna solutions. For 5G mmWave applications, prototypes of the beam-steering antenna at 26 GHz have apparently shown unprecedented data transmission efficiency.

The device is fully compatible with existing 5G specifications that are currently used by mobile communications networks. Moreover, the technology does not require the complex and inefficient feeding networks required for commonly deployed antenna systems, instead using a low-complexity system which improves performance and is simple to fabricate.

University of Birmingham Enterprise has filed a patent application for the next-generation beam-steering antenna technology and is seeking industry partners for collaboration, product development or licensing. The research team is also developing and testing prototypes at higher frequencies and in applications that take it beyond 5G mobile communications.

“Although we developed the technology for use in 5G, our current models show that our beam-steering technology may be capable of 94% efficiency at 300 GHz,” Churm said. “The technology can also be adapted for use in vehicle-to-vehicle, vehicle-to-infrastructure, vehicular radar and satellite communications, making it good for next-generation use in automotive, radar, space and defence applications.

“We are assembling a further body of work for publication and presentation that will demonstrate a level of efficiency that has not yet been reported for transmission of radio waves at these challenging frequencies. The simplicity of the design and the low cost of the elements are advantageous for early adoption by industry, and the compact electronics configuration makes it easy to deploy where there are space constraints.

“We are confident that the beam-steering antenna is good for a wide range of 5G and 6G applications, as well as satellite and the Internet of Things.”

Image credit: ©stock.adobe.com/au/AndSus

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