SBIR Phase II: High Performance Millimeter-Wave Radiofrequency (RF) Front-End Technology for Multi-Gigabit Wireless Communications

这项小企业创新研究（SBIR）第二阶段项目的更广泛影响/商业潜力是一个为下一代宽带多千兆连接提供大范围高吞吐量无线通信的平台。更具体地说，该技术旨在解决毫米波（mmWave或高频段5G）无线电和网络以及广泛的5G/6G无线应用（包括固定和移动无线接入）的一些关键潜在挑战。该项目是许多应用的推动者，包括汽车、制造业和医疗保健到智能城市物联网（IoT）和智能家居。许多更先进的5G/6G无线用例侧重于连接以前未连接或连接不足的社区和行业。作为5G/6G无线技术的组成部分，拟议的先进无线技术可以实现下一代网络的快速和稳健部署，并在加快5G技术渗透速度方面发挥作用。该小型企业创新研究第二阶段项目旨在开发高增益波束成形天线系统，作为下一代千兆应用的毫米波（mmWave）射频（RF）前端技术的核心。与传统的6 GHz以下频谱相比，毫米波的可用带宽提高了10倍，可以实现更快的连接速度，是电信行业的重要焦点。这些应用最近促使美国联邦通信委员会（FCC）和其他国际同行在毫米波频谱上开放几个频段，用于包括5G蜂窝、无线基础设施等在内的通信应用。尽管有这些优势，但现有商用毫米波前端技术的性能有限，不适合5G毫米波新兴的固定和移动接入用例。为了满足这一需求，该项目提出了一种新的波束形成毫米波技术，与现有毫米波无线解决方案相比，该技术支持更高数量级的聚合吞吐量，并可作为许多数据密集型应用的推手。作为固定无线接入（FWA）的集成无线解决方案，该技术为网络和服务运营商和提供商提供了显著的成本节约和收入。该项目以第一阶段的技术成果为基础，重点关注高性能毫米波天线技术的设计实现和原型设计。该技术结合了高增益多千兆吞吐量的高能效波束形成，并基于一种全新的架构，以及与现有最先进的毫米波无线技术根本不同的高性能天线系统和子系统。为了实现这项技术，该团队正在应用一套独特的设计方法和技术来解决所提出的复杂毫米波前端技术的挑战。其结果是超高增益毫米波波束形成系统，缩小了毫米波无线通信行业的基础技术差距。该奖项反映了美国国家科学基金会的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的知识价值和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。

The broader impact/commercial potential of this Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) Phase II project is a platform enabling a wide range of high-throughput wireless communications for the next generation of broadband multigigabit connectivity. More specifically, the technology seeks to solve some of the key underlying challenges of millimeter-wave (mmWave or high band 5G) radios and networks and a wide set of 5G/6G wireless applications, including fixed and mobile wireless access. The project is an enabler of many applications including automotive, manufacturing, and healthcare to smart city Internet of Things (IoT) and smart home. Many of the more advanced 5G/6G wireless use cases focus on connecting previously unconnected or under-connected communities and industries. As a building block of 5G/6G wireless technologies, the proposed advanced wireless technology may enable rapid and robust roll-out of the next generation network and play a role in increasing the pace of 5G technology penetration. This Small Business Innovation Research Phase II project aims to develop a high gain beamforming antenna system, as the core of a millimeter-wave (mmWave) radio frequency (RF) front-end technology for the next generation of multi-gigabit applications. With 10x higher availability of bandwidth compared to the legacy sub-6 GHz spectrum, mmWave enables faster connection speeds and is of significant focus in the telecommunication industry. These applications have recently motivated Federal Communications Commission (FCC) and other international counterparts to open several frequency bands at mmWave spectrum for communication applications including 5G cellular, wireless infrastructure, etc. Despite these advantages, the existing commercially available mmWave front-end technologies are limited in their performance and are not suitable for the emerging fixed and mobile access use cases of 5G mmWave. To address this need, this project proposes a novel beamforming mmWave technology that supports an order of magnitude higher aggregated throughput compared to the existing mmWave wireless solutions and can serve as an enabler to a number of data-intensive applications. Integrated as a wireless solution for Fixed Wireless Access (FWA), this technology offers significant cost savings and revenue for network and service operators and providers. This project builds on the technical achievements of the Phase I effort and focuses on design implementation and prototyping of the high performance mmWave antenna technology. This technology provides a combination of power-efficient beamforming with high-gain multi-gigabit throughputs and is based on a novel architecture along with high-performance antenna systems and sub-systems that are fundamentally different from the existing state-of-the-art mmWave wireless technologies. To enable realization of this technology, the team is applying a set of unique design methodologies and technologies to tackle the challenges of the proposed complex mmWave front-end technology. The result is an ultra-high gain mmWave beamforming system that closes the fundamental technology gap in the mmWave wireless communication industry.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.