MM-Wave Active Antennas for Communications Applications

无线行业继续推动更高的传输速度，更小的产品尺寸和成本，以及更大的产品功能。与此同时，人们对无线设备提出了越来越高的要求，期望无线设备能够意识到其无线电波环境，并在工作频率、功率水平和辐射特性方面适应它。这些要求，再加上大量商业应用的现实，转化为当今几乎无法满足的几个组件级技术挑战：智能，频率敏捷或多频段射频电路和天线，在有限的成本/性能下降的情况下提高射频收发器和天线的集成水平，可接受的DC/RF转换和操作效率，仅举几例。当工作频率向毫米波频段移动时，这些困难变得更加严重，因为它们最终必须避免频谱拥挤，并允许诸如短距离多gbps无线链路（即60 GHz及以上）等新兴应用。许多令人兴奋的新材料和射频技术看起来很有前景，至少单独来看：纳米（65纳米，45纳米）CMOS用于低功率有源电路，GaN HEMT用于高效功率级，基于柔性聚合物和低温共烧陶瓷（LTCC）的基板用于无源、天线和封装。这项工作的重点是有源天线和智能天线系统，将这些和其他有源、无源、传感和封装组件与新型辐射结构紧密结合。拟议的研究从几个方面解决了与下一代毫米波无线通信器和传感器发展相关的主要挑战。采用先进的片上系统和包上系统方法成功实现高性能毫米波有源天线将对无线通信行业产生巨大影响：终端的生产可能比以往任何时候都更具竞争力，因为它们将受益于更小的尺寸和重量、更好的可靠性、更高的带宽和功能以及更低的成本（通过在封装中“免费”整合功能）。

The wireless industry continues to push for higher speed transmission, lower product size and cost, and greater product functionality. At the same time, increasing demands are placed on wireless devices, which are expected to be aware of their radio-wave environment and adapt to it in terms of operating frequencies, power levels and radiation characteristics. Such requirements, coupled with the realities of high-volume commercial applications, translate into several component-level technological challenges that today are barely being met: smart, frequency-agile or multiband RF circuits and antennas, increased integration levels of RF transceivers and antennas at limited cost/performance degradations, acceptable DC/RF conversion and operating efficiencies, to name only a few. These difficulties are severely compounded when operating frequencies move toward the mm-wave band, as they eventually must to avoid spectrum crowding and to permit emerging applications such as short-range multi-Gbps wireless links (i.e. 60 GHz and above). A number of exciting new materials and RF technologies appear promising, at least individually: nanometric (65 nm, 45 nm) CMOS for low-power active circuitry, GaN HEMT for high-efficiency power stages, flexible polymer-based and low-temperature co-fired ceramic (LTCC)-based substrates for passives, antennas and packaging. This work focuses on active antennas and smart antenna systems that intimately combine these and other active, passive, sensing and packaging components with novel radiating structures. The proposed research addresses in several ways the major challenges associated with the development of next generation mm-wave wireless communicators and sensors. Successful realization of high-performance mm-wave active antennas using advanced system-on-chip and system-on-package approaches will have a tremendous impact on the wireless communications industry: terminals may be produced more competitively than ever before, as they will benefit from the advantages of reduced size and weight, better reliability, increased bandwidth and functionality, and lower cost (by incorporating functionality "for free" in the package).