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Feasibility Study of Curvature Effect in Flexible Antenna Arrays for 2-Dimensional Beam Alignment of 6G Wireless Systems

Mahdi Alesheikh, Soheil Saadat, Hamidreza Aghasi

TL;DR

This work investigates how bending a flexible 2-D antenna array can enable 2-D beam alignment for 6G mm-wave systems, aiming to reduce the insertion loss associated with phase shifters. It develops analytical and simulation models for a 4×4 patch array operating near 100 GHz, paired with flexible packaging schemes, and validates results with HFSS simulations and system-level CMOS transceiver tests across 4QAM, 16QAM, and 64QAM. The findings show that beam rotation up to about 60 degrees can be achieved with minimal gain degradation and negligible beam squint, while maintaining acceptable BER/SNR performance for common modulation orders. The approach offers a potentially low-loss alternative to conventional phase-shift-based beamforming, enabling broader 2-D beam coverage in 6G networks using flexible, curved antenna arrays.

Abstract

This article investigates the influential role of flexible antenna array curvature on the performance of 6G communication systems with carrier frequencies above 100 GHz. It is demonstrated that the curvature of flexible antenna arrays can be leveraged for 2-dimensional beam alignment in phased arrays with relatively small insertion loss. The effect of antenna array bending on the radiation properties such as gain and antenna impedance are analytically studied and simulated for a 4x4 microstrip patch antenna array operating between 97.5-102.5 GHz. Moreover, the deployment of this flexible antenna array in conjunction with state-of-the-art flexible board packaging techniques is examined for 6G wireless transceivers based on 65nm CMOS technology and simulated for three variants of quadrature amplitude modulation (4QAM, 16 QAM, and 64 QAM). The communication performance in terms of signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) and bit error rate (BER) is evaluated using analytical derivations and simulation results which exhibit a relatively close match.

Feasibility Study of Curvature Effect in Flexible Antenna Arrays for 2-Dimensional Beam Alignment of 6G Wireless Systems

TL;DR

This work investigates how bending a flexible 2-D antenna array can enable 2-D beam alignment for 6G mm-wave systems, aiming to reduce the insertion loss associated with phase shifters. It develops analytical and simulation models for a 4×4 patch array operating near 100 GHz, paired with flexible packaging schemes, and validates results with HFSS simulations and system-level CMOS transceiver tests across 4QAM, 16QAM, and 64QAM. The findings show that beam rotation up to about 60 degrees can be achieved with minimal gain degradation and negligible beam squint, while maintaining acceptable BER/SNR performance for common modulation orders. The approach offers a potentially low-loss alternative to conventional phase-shift-based beamforming, enabling broader 2-D beam coverage in 6G networks using flexible, curved antenna arrays.

Abstract

This article investigates the influential role of flexible antenna array curvature on the performance of 6G communication systems with carrier frequencies above 100 GHz. It is demonstrated that the curvature of flexible antenna arrays can be leveraged for 2-dimensional beam alignment in phased arrays with relatively small insertion loss. The effect of antenna array bending on the radiation properties such as gain and antenna impedance are analytically studied and simulated for a 4x4 microstrip patch antenna array operating between 97.5-102.5 GHz. Moreover, the deployment of this flexible antenna array in conjunction with state-of-the-art flexible board packaging techniques is examined for 6G wireless transceivers based on 65nm CMOS technology and simulated for three variants of quadrature amplitude modulation (4QAM, 16 QAM, and 64 QAM). The communication performance in terms of signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) and bit error rate (BER) is evaluated using analytical derivations and simulation results which exhibit a relatively close match.
Paper Structure (6 sections, 13 equations, 7 figures, 2 tables)

This paper contains 6 sections, 13 equations, 7 figures, 2 tables.

Table of Contents

  1. Introduction
  2. Flexible Antenna Design
  3. 3-D Folding of a Patch Antenna Array
  4. BER of 6G systems using Bent Antenna Arrays
  5. Simulation Results
  6. Conclusion

Figures (7)

  • Figure 1: (a) conventional 1-D beam alignment hybrid beamforming architecture, (b) proposed 2-D beam alignment architecture by extended aerial coverage, (c) target applications.
  • Figure 2: (a) heterogeneous package comprising CMOS chipsets and antenna on FPC, (b) buried chip in FPC package. Measured values of (c) bend radius for various substrate thickness, and (d) board flexibility maximum angle vs. its dimensions.
  • Figure 3: (a) Unfolded rectangular patch antenna array, (b) illustration of array bending, (c) metal layer details of the flexible patch antenna array.
  • Figure 4: (a) Analytical values versus simulated results for (a) the magnitude of electric field, and (b) input resistance of the 4$\times$4 array, (c) input reactance variations by folding.
  • Figure 5: Flexible antenna array beam profile across the bandwidth in (left) E-plane and (right) H-plane.
  • ...and 2 more figures