Description
Phased array antennas provide an efficient way to steer and direct the radiated RF energy in terrestrial 5G applications such as base stations and fixed wireless access (FWA) terminals. However, the performance and benefits of the phased array can be limited by trade-offs within the constituent RF chains, particularly when considering interference from terrestrial and satellite networks co-existing at C-Band. The ability to reconfigure the bandwidth of a RF chain to control the effects of emissions and interference is therefore a desirable capability in future mid-band 5G services. As an example of the advantages of the proposed concept, a wideband and dynamically programmable array operating over C-Band (e.g., 3.3 to 7.0 GHz), could achieve a combination of passband system noise figure and rejection of out-of-band interference by optimising the filter's transfer function for various operating and interferenceconditions. Such a flexible array architecture would in fact enable a variety of 5G use-cases currently limited by interference (e.g., Connected Car, Aeronautical and 5G FWA terrestrial/satellite dual-connectivity). It could also support use-cases requiring high 5G data rates on both uplinks and downlinks simultaneously from a single node. This activity aims at developing a new class of reconfigurable filters, suitable for integration in intermediate RF stages, where very compact size is required but relatively high losses are acceptable. A review of RFIC-based filter technologies and techniques shall be carried out, including silicon, PIN diode, MEMSas well as switchable filter banks. The activity will trade off, design, and manufacture the required RFICs to cover a variety of C-Band application scenarios requiring hybrid terrestrial/satellite connectivity. A small 16x16 C-Band array demonstrator, representative of the identified C-Band scenarios, shall be designed, manufactured, and tested to validate the benefits of the new RFICs (COTScould be used for other RF/Antenna components). Key performance such as linearity, tuning time, tuning range, power consumption andsize of the specific RFICs shall be analysed at both device and system levels. To assist the antenna designer in optimising the benefit of these degrees of freedom, a software tool comprising an accurate behavioural filter model shall also be developed.Procurement Policy: C(1) = Activity restricted to non-prime contractors (incl. SMEs). For additional information please go to:http://www.esa.int/About_Us/Business_with_ESA/Small_and_Medium_Sized_En….