A Reconfigurable Phased Array Architecture with Reduced RF Ports Based on Software-Defined Radio for beyond 5G Applications

Abstract

This paper presents a software-defined phased array architecture using two-port half-loop antenna topology for 5G and beyond applications. The proposed architecture is exemplified as directivity, beam-steering and polarization reconfigurable phased arrays based on pre-defined weighting vector matrix in 28GHz spectrum. The 2× 2 two-port half-loop antenna is designed using a low temperature cofired ceramic process to verify the feasibility of the proposed concept. The proposed concept features multiple polarizations and a half of the spherical beamforming coverage which are selected from infinite theoretically available modes and the fabricated model is experimentally verified.