FORMAT: A Reconfigurable Tile-Based Antenna Array System for 5G and 6G Millimeter-Wave Testbeds
Journal article, 2022

This article introduces the FORMAT array, a reconfigurable millimeter-wave antenna array platform based on antenna tiles. FORMAT stands for Flexible Organization and Reconfiguration of Millimeter-wave Antenna Tiles, which is a unique hardware solution aiming to implement and demonstrate a variety of antenna array concepts, as well as different array architectures and configurations from the same basic module, providing even benchmark between different solutions and thus valuable insights into fifth-generation (5G) and beyond-5G antenna systems. The combination of a minimum-sized tile with 3D-printed frame parts enables antenna arrays of a variety of sizes, allows multiple beamforming architectures, and a range of different antenna element positioning in the array. The hardware implementation is thoroughly described, with a few different array assemblies being manufactured and measured, validating their antenna performance with over-the-air measurements. Finally, using FORMAT hardware as both base station and user equipment, a 5-m wireless communication link was set up, achieving 4.8 Gbps downlink speed with QAM64 modulation.

Antennas

beamforming

Array signal processing

Antenna arrays

massive MIMO

Hardware

Computer architecture

antenna tile

fifth-generation (5G)

5G mobile communication

Antenna measurements

6G

antenna arrays

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Published in

IEEE Systems Journal

1932-8184 (ISSN) 19379234 (eISSN)

Vol. 16 Issue 3 p. 4489-4500

Categorizing

Subject Categories (SSIF 2011)

Telecommunications

Communication Systems

Embedded Systems

Identifiers

DOI

10.1109/JSYST.2022.3146360

More information

Latest update

7/23/2024