5G and mmWave Antenna Engineering Training

5G and mmWave Antenna Engineering Training 

5G technology has opened doors, but finding which doors to open has been challenging for engineers, manufacturers, carriers and the Federal Communications Commission (FCC).

In the beginning, 3rd Generation Partnership Project (3GPP) focused on the millimeter wave frequency (wwWave) range as the prestandardization favorite for the portable 5G applications.

Millimeter waves are electromagnetic (radio) waves typically defined to lie within the frequency range of 30–300 GHz. 3GPP liked this frequency because it wasn’t crowded and featured the short but speedy wwWave, which permits faster networking speeds and little to no latency.

The downside of this frequency was that millimeter waves traveled only short distances and had penetration issues with buildings, trees, cows and even rain.

Consequently a 5G antenna system was required that would allow millimeter waves to be broadcast efficiently to mobile phone users.

High performing millimeter-wave devices require efficient low-profile antennas to ensure reliable and interference-free communications. Requirements for increased power, larger  bandwidth, higher gain, and insensitivity to the human user presence further complicate the antenna and propagation aspects.

During the engineering of 5G technology, various antennas were proposed by researchers for mmWave applications.

Due to small wavelength, mmWave devices facilitate large antenna arrays to be packed in miniature physical dimension. Without varying antenna size, it is possible to pack more antenna elements at mmWave frequencies than at microwave frequencies resulting in narrower beam.

A major consideration in the mmWave antenna was the nature of the mmWave itself. Issues like path loss, rain absorption, conduction losses in metals, substrate losses and changes in substrate properties are well-known contributors to losses in the millimeter wave (mmWave) technology used by 5G carriers.

Fortunately, the small wavelengths of mmWave frequencies enable large numbers of antenna elements to be deployed in the same form factor thereby providing high spatial processing gains that can theoretically compensate for at least the isotropic path loss.

Still, as mmWave systems are equipped with several antennas, a number of computation and implementation challenges arise to maintain the anticipated performance gain of mmWave systems.

Engineers have turned to various methodologies in order to pair mmWaves with antenna elements. Beamforming, for example, is a special massive MIMO technique which makes use of multiple, small, closely spaced antenna elements to generate a highly directional beam.

Each of these elements is fed with a signal phase and amplitude adjusted in a way that steers the radio energy only in the direction of interest. Not only does this increase the SNR but improves the spectral efficiency and ensures a reliable coverage.

However, unlike previous generations of technologies, which focused more on generating a static beam, dynamic beam shaping and directionality makes it crucial to characterize the radiation pattern and antenna performance.

5G and mmWave Antenna Engineering Training Course by Tonex

5G and mmWave Antenna Engineering Training covers the theory and practice of antenna engineering, communications, radar, commercial and military applications. Learn how to system engineer, design and build 5G and mmWave antennas. Also learn about antenna applications and properties including EM spectrum of frequencies covering microwave antennas from about 5 GHz to about 60 GHz.

Before 5G mania, the lower microwave spectrum received most of the attention as the force behind wireless technology.

But with the advent of 5G wireless networks, the major carriers had to turn to a seldom used spectrum in order to launch their new and improved architectures. That spectrum turned out to be the millimeter wave (mmWave) spectrum, a higher band (30-300 GHz) that had only infrequently been used in radio astronomy and satellite-based remote sensing.

Almost overnight, the mmWave became the darling of the telecom industry – albeit a “temperamental” darling.

Although the available bandwidth of mmWave frequencies is promising, the propagation characteristics are significantly different from microwave frequency bands in terms of path loss, diffraction and blockage, rain attenuation, atmospheric absorption and foliage loss behaviors. In general, the overall loss of mmWave systems is significantly larger than that of microwave systems for a point-to-point link.

Fortunately, the small wavelengths of mmWave frequencies enable large numbers of antenna elements to be deployed in the same form factor thereby providing high spatial processing gains that can theoretically compensate for at least the isotropic path loss. Still, as mmWave systems are equipped with several antennas, a number of computation and implementation challenges arise to maintain the anticipated performance gain of mmWave systems.

Despite issues, the major wireless service providers remain committed to the millimeter-band in bringing 5G technology to the public.

The major mobile network operators are compensating for mmWave inefficiencies through antenna enabling techniques that allow 5G to operate at a high level. For example, advanced beamforming and beam tracking techniques use 3D directional antennas to increase coverage and non-line of sight (NLOS) operation.

That, and in order to deliver faster speeds to subscribers, 5G standards require more complex antenna designs and deployment strategies. Traditional antennas are passive devices that use metal rods, capacitors, and conductors. Active antennas and MIMO are key to differentiating 5G from previous wireless networks.

Also, it’s important to understand that people are just one projected part of the many users of 5G networks. Autonomous vehicles will need that 1-ms latency of 5G networks to safely steer through traffic and maintain awareness of the traffic around them by means of vehicle-to-everything (V2X) communications. In addition, billions of Internet of Things (IoT) sensors will be adding their data contributions to 5G networks within the next decade, giving people instant access to information about different things and environments around them.

Learning Objectives

Upon completing the 5G and mmWave Antenna Engineering Training course, attendees will be able to:

• Explain key 5G and mmWave technology features and advantages
• Describe major mmWave antenna applications using mmWave enabling technologies
• Relate mmWave and 5G radio architecture and system implementation and antenna deployments
• Learn the key antenna systems engineering concepts related to design, performance, operation and optimization
• Describe mmWave antenna technology types
• Design antenna arrays using basic mmWave principles
• Simulate and model antenna performance with considerations of mmWave propagation
• Predict 5G communication system performance using mmWave antenna
• Measure and test mmWave antenna performance

Who Should Attend

RF engineers, scientists, software engineers, testing engineers, analysts, engineering managers, antenna technicians, field measurement technicians and project planners can all benefit from 5G and mmWave Antenna Engineering Training.

Course Content

History and Introduction

• Antenna design in cellular phones: 1G-4G antenna evolution: monopole/ PCB-monopole / planar inverted F antenna / planar monopole / coupling element based antenna
• Typical types of antennas in a cellphone: primary cellular, diversity cellular, GPS antenna / Wi-Fi antenna / NFC antennas
• Matching Networks / L-Network
• Commercial deployment in example products: mobile phones / laptops / tablets / projectors / routers

Basic Antenna Concepts

• Blackbody radiation / Maxwell equations
• Frequency bands
• Antenna Reciprocity
• Radiation pattern / Far Field, Near Field and Fresnel Regions / Beamwidths and Sidelobes
• Friis Transmission Equation / Link budget
• Antenna Gain / Efficiency / Bandwidth / Antenna temperature
• Maximum power-transfer theorem / Smith chart review / impedance matching / Standing wave ratio

5G Antenna Challenges and Theory

• Shannon-Hartley Theorem (Capacity)
• Channel capacity / channel state information (CSI)
• mmWave compatible substrates / Low-Loss Transmission Lines / Device-to-Package Interconnections
• Small antenna apertures
• Loss mechanisms /Free-space propagation vs. Multi-path propagation / Fading / Oxygen absorption
• Antenna design tradeoffs: Bandwidth tradeoff vs. spectrum / tradeoff between complexity and performance / diversity-multiplexing tradeoff for arrays

5G Antenna Types and Components

• Substrate integrated waveguides (SIWs), multilayer and multipitch antennas
• Grid Antennas / Patch (with embedded cavity) / L-probe patch / Cavity / loop-loaded dipole / slot / cavity-backed wide slot / aperture antenna
• Typical antennas for 60 GHz operation: Reflector, lens and horn antennas
• Microstrip antennas / Yagi–Uda antenna
• Antenna parameters for mmWaves / Gain / Directionality / antenna effective area / efficiency / return loss
• antennas on chip (AoC) and antenna in package (AiP)
• Antenna on chip / Antenna on package
• High resistivity (HR) silicon-on-insulator (SOI) CMOS
• 5G Antenna Materials: RT Duroid /
• Liquid Crystal Polymer / Taconic TLY / PET / RO4350B / FR4
• 5G antenna Fabrication
• PCB process
• Low temperature co-fired ceramic (LTCC)
• Die-sink electrical discharge machining (EDM)

Multiple Antenna Systems for mmWave 5G networks

• Antenna arrays
• Single-input single output (SISO)
• Multiple input single output (MISO)
• Multiple-input and multiple-output (MIMO)
• Single User MIMO
• Multi User MIMO
• Pre-coding / Analog pre-coding / Digital pre-coding / Hybrid pre-coding
• Massive MIMO
• Beamforming / analog beamforming / digital beamforming / hybrid beamforming
• Linear array antenna theory
• Linear array measurements
• Design considerations for mmWave antennas
• Polarization characteristics

Antenna Array Design Considerations

• Friis transmission formula breakdown
• Cross-coupling in the near-field
• Array gain / power gain
• Pre-coding / spatial multiplexing / diversity coding (e.g., space-time coding)
• Metrics / peak-to-average ratio (PAR)
• Testing: vector signal generator (VSG) / channel emulator / vector signal analyzer (VSA)
• Distortion: group velocity dispersion (GVD)
• Linearity: IP3, P1dB

5G RF front-end Devices and Concepts

• System design context
• Quantization error / data converters
• Multi-band filters / surface acoustic wave (SAW), bulk acoustic wave (BAW) and film bulk acoustic wave (FBAR) filter banks and integrated modules
• Machine learning for beam training, adaptive reconfiguration / Out-of-band information exploitation / IMU sensor readings
• Phased array: Phase shift module / active electronically scanned array (AESA), passive electronically scanned array (PESA)

Antenna Testing (Verification and Validation)

• Design Verification
• EMC/EMI
• Anechoic Chambers / Grounding
• Radiation Pattern and Gain Measurements
• Near-Field Antenna Measurements
• Phase Measurements
• Polarization Measurements
• Impedance Measurements
• SAR (Specific Absorption Rate) Measurements
• Antenna Operational Validation Methods

5G and mmWave Antenna Engineering Training