The importance of Beamforming at mmWave
What is Beamforming at Millimeter-wave?
Beamforming technology focuses a wireless signal towards a specific receiving device, rather than having the signal spread in all directions from a single or multi-antenna system.
Benefits of beamforming at mmWave
5G frequencies operating along the millimeter wavelength (mmWave) of the radio spectrum allows 5G to carry much more data at groundbreaking speeds.
Disruptive mmWave Beamforming Trends
In recent years , disruptive beamforming approaches have enables lower manufacturing and deployment cost, higher data rate, and better uniform service quality
Beamformer
A beamformer is a single or multi-antenna system that implements the beamforming technology to provide coverage in a wireless communication system.
The Tech
How Beamforming Resets Connectivity Performance in mmWave 5G
It is surprising to see what an array of co-located beamforming antennas can do to make sure that our wireless devices stay connected to the Internet. The high data rate demand of mmWave 5G mobile users can only be fulfilled using the beamforming technology. This technology can enable the fast and dynamic beam switching. The most common type of multi-antenna system is an array of half-wavelength spaced antenna connected to a single RF source via a network of power dividers, referred to as corporate-feed array.
More sophisticated beamformers involve a bank of phase shifters connected to each antenna element to add beamsteering capability to the corporate-feed array. Advanced beamformers involve digitally controlled phase shifters, lens structures, meta-surfaces, which improve the device performance.
Beamforming is essential for 5G infrastructure in 28 GHz and 38 GHz bands. At these frequencies, the free space path–loss is very high and requires a compensation in terms of very high antenna gain. A steerable beam at these frequencies can reliably serve a communication device in a much better way compared to an inefficient isotropic RF radiator.
Who We Are
Our Team
Dr. Muhammad Abbasi
Antenna and radio hardware expert, mobile industry award winner.
Prof. Michalis Matthaiou
Wireless communication and information theory expert.
Mr. Norbert Sagnard
31 years marketing and business development in mobile industry
Contact Us
Centre for Wireless Innovation, ECIT, Queens Road, Queen's Island, Belfast, BT3 9DT, United Kingdom
Monday-Friday: 9am – 5pm
+44 28 9097 1700
Get Started
We are looking for partnerships with antenna OEMs to manufacture our mmWave front end devices for 5G networks. If you have further questions about beamformers at mmWave or understand how our beamforming systems can help your business, do contact us now.