Compact Integrated Full-Duplex Gap Waveguide-Based Radio Front End For Multi-Gbit/s Point-to-Point Backhaul Links at E-Band

Journal article, 2019

This paper presents the design and realization of a high data rate radio front-end module for point-to-point backhaul links at E-band. The design module consists of four vertically stacked unconnected metal layers without any galvanic and electrical contact requirements among the building blocks, by using gap waveguide technology. The module components are a high-gain array antenna, diplexer, and circuitry consisting of a transmitter (Tx) and a receiver (Rx) monolithic microwave integrated circuits (MMICs) on a carrier board, which is successfully integrated into one package with a novel architecture and a compact form. The diplexer consists of two direct-coupled cavity bandpass filters with channels at 71-76 GHz and 81-86 GHz with a measured return loss of 15 dB and an isolation greater than 50 dB. A wideband 16 x 16 slot array antenna with a measured gain of more than 31 dBi is used to provide high directivity. The measured results show that the packaged transmitter provides a conversion gain of 22 and 20 dB at 76 and 86 GHz, respectively, with an output power of 14 and 16 dBm at 1-dB gain compression point, at the same frequencies. The packaged receiver shows an average conversion gain of 20 dB at 71-76-GHz and 24 dB at 81-86-GHz bands. A real-time wireless data transmission is successfully demonstrated with a data rate of 8 Gbit/s using 32-quadrature amplitude modulated signal over 1.8-GHz channel bandwidth with spectral efficiency of 4.44 bit/s/Hz. The proposed radio front end provides the advantages of low loss, high efficiency, compact integration, and a simple mechanical assembly, which makes it a suitable solution for small-cell backhaul links.