NSERC/C-COM Industrial Research Chair in Intelligent Antenna and Radio Systems for Next Generation Millimeter-Wave Mobile Communications

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Unlimited demand on information bandwidth and connectivity requires revolutionary changes in radiotechnologies, communication systems, and networks. Next generation radio networks with 100 to 1000 timesmore bandwidth, which will connect everything to everything with no delay, will extend the global reach of thedigital economy to every corner of this world (in the ocean, deep in the sky, and remotest villages). This visionis way beyond the capabilities of the current technologies. A radical solution to this problem is to exploit muchhigher frequency bands such as millimeter-wave and terahertz, which can provide ultra-broad informationbandwidth. Despite its extreme communication bandwidth, commercial (mass market) exploitation ofmillimeter-wave spectrum is quite limited due to the cost, small radiated power, poor sensitivity of the currentdevices, and complexity of the radio and antenna technologies. Millimeter-wave attenuation in the air andcommon objects (building material and human body) is another difficulty. To address these challenges, one ofthe most promising solutions is the intelligent massive multi-antenna systems, wherein radiations from a largenumber of small identical low-cost/low-power antenna modules, are properly combined in space to generate ahigh power emission in desirable direction and much less radiation and interference in unwanted directions.Thebuilt-in intelligence in such modular radio/antenna system minimizes the power consumption and maximizesthe performance.The objective of the proposed IRC program is to investigate and to develop a new modular and low-costintelligent antenna and radio technology for next generation millimeter-wave (mmW) communication andsensing applications. A significant advantage of the proposed technology is its "scalability". This simply meansthat the complex active antenna systems with various shapes and sizes, for different applications, can all bemade from the same low-power intelligent active antenna module, which can be mass-produced to minimizethe cost. A comprehensive working prototype of such system will be developed during this IRC program