Research on Structurally Integrated Phased Array for Wireless Communications

Qing-Qiang He; Shuai Ding; Chen Xing; Jun-Quan Chen; Guo-Qing Yang; Bing-Zhong Wang

doi:10.1109/ACCESS.2020.2980595

IEEE Access (Jan 2020)

Research on Structurally Integrated Phased Array for Wireless Communications

Qing-Qiang He,
Shuai Ding,
Chen Xing,
Jun-Quan Chen,
Guo-Qing Yang,
Bing-Zhong Wang

Affiliations

Qing-Qiang He: Southwest China Institute of Electronic Technology, Chengdu, China
Shuai Ding: ORCiD; Institute of Applied Physics, University of Electronic Science and Technology of China, Chengdu, China
Chen Xing: Southwest China Institute of Electronic Technology, Chengdu, China
Jun-Quan Chen: Southwest China Institute of Electronic Technology, Chengdu, China
Guo-Qing Yang: Southwest China Institute of Electronic Technology, Chengdu, China
Bing-Zhong Wang: ORCiD; Institute of Applied Physics, University of Electronic Science and Technology of China, Chengdu, China

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1109/ACCESS.2020.2980595
Journal volume & issue: Vol. 8
pp. 52359 – 52369

Abstract

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Structurally integrated antenna is a kind of highly integrated microwave device with a load-bearing function, and it is usually installed on the structural surface of the air, water and ground vehicles. This paper presents the design, fabrication and testing of a novel structurally integrated Ka-band active antenna for airborne 5G wireless communications. The proposed antenna is mainly composed of three parts: a package layer, a control and signal process layer and a RF layer. In the RF layer, the microstrip antenna array, tile transmitting (Tx) modules, micro-channel heat sinks and a stripline feeding network are highly integrated into a functional block with a thickness of 2.8 mm. Electromechanical co-design methods are developed to design the active antenna array with the superstrates, and two schemes for designing micro-channel heat sinks are evaluated to obtain a uniform temperature distribution. The RF layer is fabricated by using the low-temperature cofired ceramic process, and the three layers are assembled to form the full-size antenna prototype. The mechanical and electromagnetic experiments are carried out, and the results demonstrate the feasibility of the structurally integrated active antenna for airborne wireless communications.

Published in IEEE Access

ISSN: 2169-3536 (Online)
Publisher: IEEE
Country of publisher: United States
LCC subjects: Technology: Electrical engineering. Electronics. Nuclear engineering
Website: https://ieeexplore.ieee.org/xpl/RecentIssue.jsp?punumber=6287639

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