A 64-Element Ultra-Wideband 23-46 GHz Tx/Rx 5G Phased Array with 50 dBm Peak EIRP and 2.4 Gb/s 64-QAM Operation

An $8\times 8$ single polarized wideband phased array operating at 23-46 GHz is presented in this paper. The array is built by integrating 4-channel SiGe BiCMOS wideband Tx/Rx beamformer chips with stacked dipole antennas on a single printed circuit board (PCB). The array is capable of ± 55° scanning in the azimuth plane and ± 40° scanning in the elevation plane up to 46 GHz. In the Tx mode, the array achieves an effective isotropic radiated power (EIRP) of 42-48 dBm at P1dB operation from 23 to 46 GHz (EIRPPsat of 50 dBm at 40 GHz). When transmitting a 64-QAM modulated signal, an error vector magnitude (EVM) <5% is achieved at an EIRP of 41-45 dBm and 2.4 Gb/s data rate. To the author’s knowledge, this work achieves the widest bandwidth in millimeter-wave phased arrays built on a low-cost PCB and with application areas in multi-standard 5G base stations.

I. Introduction

Recent years have seen many designs of millimeter wave phased arrays and their applications in 5G communication systems [1], [2], [3], [4], [5], [6]. Since the current licensed 5G new radio frequency range 2 (NR FR2) spreads across a wide spectrum from 24.25 to 48.2 GHz (n257 to n262) [Fig. 1(a)], demands of a single, multi-standard array which could operate at all these bands have increased significantly. Dual-band solutions have been demonstrated in [7], [8], but the lack of dedicated dual-band beamformer chips has limited its aperture size. Work in [9], [10], [11] presented ultra-wideband phased array design from 16-52 GHz, but these arrays employ printed Vivaldi antennas and use several PCBs to form a two-dimensional (2D) array, which makes them expensive, bulky and difficult to assemble.