Heterogeneous Phased Array Architecture Consisting of AoD and AiP to Enhance Spherical Beamforming Coverage for 5G/6G Cellular Handsets

Abstract

This paper presents a first-of-the-kind heterogeneous phased array architecture to enhance spherical beamforming coverage while maintaining present-day device design trends. The proposed architecture symmetrically arranges both antenna-on-display (AoD) and antenna-in-package (AiP) modules in the foreside direction to achieve three independent multi-beamsteering radiation in two opposing broadside and one-endfire directions. The proof-of-concept (POC) model is designed to prove the feasibility of the proposed phased array configuration and architecture. The phased array AoD and AiP modules of the POC model achieve more than 1.7 GHz impedance bandwidth across the 3GPP's licensed n261 (27.5 - 28.35 GHz) bands. The POC model improves EIRP at CDF = 50% by more than 2.8 dB compared to that of each independent AoD and AiP module.