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Large antenna arrays are currently needed to enable 5G+ technologies, making them difficult to transport and expensive to customise. Researchers from Georgia Institute of Technology (Georgia Tech) in the US aimed to tackle that problem with a novel and flexible solution.
The team used additive manufacturing to create tiles for on-demand, ‘massively scalable’ 5G+ arrays, effectively creating ‘smart skins’ that could be added to a variety of surfaces and objects.
The tiles reportedly maintain their performance when flexed, or when connected up to a large number of other tiles.
“Typically, there are a lot of smaller wireless network systems working together, but they are not scalable. With the current techniques, you can’t increase, decrease, or direct bandwidth, especially for very large areas,” said researcher Manos Tentzeris. “Being able to utilise and scale this novel tile-based approach makes this possible.”
The researcher said the modular approach could have an “immediate, large-scale impact” as the telecommunications industry continues its transition to faster, higher capacity and lower latency communications.
Engineering areas that could benefit from increased deployment of 5G and faster systems include smart manufacturing, the Internet of Things (IoT), self-driving cars, virtual reality (VR) applications and more.
Broadband-boosting drones
In the Georgia Tech approach, the printed tiles are assembled onto a single, flexible underlying layer, allowing tile arrays to be attached to a multitude of surfaces. This could include drones to boost broadband capacity in low coverage areas, Tentzeris said.
In the study, the team fabricated a proof-of-concept, flexible 5×5-centimetre tile array and wrapped it around a 3.5-centimetre radius curvature. Each tile includes an antenna subarray and an integrated, beamforming integrated circuit on an underlying tiling layer, to create a smart skin that can connect the tiles into large antenna arrays.
The modular approach means tiles of identical sizes could be manufactured in large quantities and be easily replaced, reducing the cost of customisation and repairs.
“The shape and features of each tile... can accommodate different frequency bands and power levels,” said Tentzeris. “One could have communications capabilities, another sensing capabilities, and another could be an energy harvester tile for solar, thermal, or ambient RF energy. The application of the tile framework is not limited to communications.”
He added: “The tile architecture’s mass scalability makes its applications particularly diverse and virtually ubiquitous. From structures the size of dams and buildings, to machinery or cars, down to individual health-monitoring wearables.
“We’re moving in a direction where everything will be covered in some type of a wireless conformal smart skin encompassing a communication system or antenna that allows for effective monitoring.”
The team now aims to test the approach outside the laboratory on large, real-world structures. They are working on the fabrication of much larger, fully inkjet-printed tile arrays, which will be presented at the upcoming International Microwave Symposium (IEEE IMS 2022).
The research was published in Scientific Reports.
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