Direct Digitisation for Frequency Agile Millimetre Wave Massive MIMO

近年来，智能手机、笔记本电脑和平板电脑等需要无线连接互联网的移动设备的使用出现了巨大的爆炸性增长。预计到2020年，全球这一数字将达到400亿，因为从家庭、交通、医疗、军事和基础设施等各个领域都可以体验到越来越多的嵌入式智能功能和用户可操作性。未来的5G通信系统、物联网和自动驾驶汽车等重大应用正在推动这项技术。目前，无线系统的工作频率最高可达6 GHz。然而，人们越来越意识到，低于6 GHz的频谱无法支持未来用户和应用所要求的巨大数据速率。下一步是开发利用更高频率的技术，使数据速率与未来需求兼容。目前，ETSI和ITU等世界许可机构已经确定，最高可达90 GHz的毫米波频率最有可能扩大频谱。在战略上，英国必须发展无线技术，以在世界舞台上竞争，并提高其竞争力，特别是在与远东的竞争中。超高速5G级电信基础设施是产业战略绿皮书的核心，英国政府一直在联合战略的十大支柱中倡导并强调这一点。作为未来通信系统的重要方面，毫米波接收器中的两个技术瓶颈是：1)当前的接收器体系结构不能以可接受的功耗直接数字化毫米波信号，以及2)天线阵列不够频率捷变。该项目旨在利用在Farad项目上开发的新技术来解决这两个瓶颈。拟议的研究将包括天线、滤波器和放大器与跟踪保持放大器、模数转换器和数字下变频的联合设计。这将导致用于全数字大规模MIMO系统的新的接收器架构。该项目开发的技术和架构将使未来的高频网络能够在新的毫米波传输频段高效运行。这项研究将对解决未来20至30年的无线容量瓶颈，并使英国保持在毫米波技术和创新的前沿具有深远的影响。

In recent years there has been a huge explosion in the use of mobile devices such as smartphones, laptop computers and tablets which require a wireless connection to the internet. Numbers are forecast to reach 40 billion worldwide by 2020 as areas as diverse as the home, transport, healthcare, military and infrastructure experience increasing levels of embedded 'smart' functionality and user operability. Major applications such as future 5G communications systems, the Internet of Things and Autonomous Vehicles are driving this technology. At present wireless systems operate at frequencies up to 6GHz. However, there is a growing realisation that the spectrum below 6GHz cannot support the huge data rates being demanded by future users and applications.The next step is to develop technologies utilising much higher frequencies to give data rates compatible with future demand. Currently, world licencing bodies such as ETSI and ITU have identified millimetre wave frequencies up to 90 GHz as most likely for this expansion in the spectrum. Strategically, the UK must develop wireless technologies to compete on the world stage and increase its competitiveness particularly in competition with the Far East. Superfast 5G level Telecoms infrastructure is central to the Industrial Strategy Green Paper, which the UK government has been championing and highlighting in the ten pillars of combined strategy. Two technology bottlenecks in millimetre wave receivers, which are important aspects of future communication systems, are: 1) current receiver architectures are unable to directly digitise millimetre wave signals with acceptable power consumption, and 2) antenna arrays are not sufficiently frequency agile. This project aims to address both bottlenecks using new techniques developed on the FARAD project. The proposed research will embrace the co-design of antennas, filters and amplifiers with track-and-hold-amplifiers, analogue-to-digital-convertors and digital down conversion. This will result in new receiver architectures for fully digital massive MIMO systems. The techniques and architectures developed in this project will enable future high-frequency networks to operate efficiently in the new millimetre wave transmission bands. The research will have far-reaching consequences for solving the wireless capacity bottleneck over the next 20 to 30 years and keeping the UK at the forefront of millimetre wave technology and innovation.