A 37-42 GHz 8x8 Phased-Array for 5G Communication Systems with 48-50 dBm EIRP

Abstract

This paper presents a 5G 39 GHz 8x8 phased array. The array is based on 2x2 TRX beamformer chips in SiGe technology with 6 bits of phase control and 8 bits of gain control. Sixteen of the beamformer chips are flipped on a low-cost printed circuit board (PCB) with a 1:16 wilkinson network. The antenna is designed with a stacked-patch structure and has an impedance bandwidth of 7 GHz (35.5-42.5 GHz). The 8x8 phased-array has a measured EIRP of 48-50 dBm at P1dB and Psat with a 3-dB bandwidth of 36.5-42 GHz. The phased-array can scan to +/−50° in the azimuth plane and +/−45° in the elevation plane with very low sidelobes, and achieves < −30 dB cross polarization levels at all scan angles. An error vector magnitude (EVM) measurement was done with the 8x8 array using a 16-QAM 100 MHz waveform with α=0.35 (PAPR=6.6 dB) and a very low EVM is achieved (1.2-4.75%) over a wide range of EIRP, and up to 46 dBm of average power.