Wideband 24-30 GHz 5G mmWave capabilities are showcased in this demo by establishing an over-the-air (OTA) communication link between two Phased Array Antenna Modules, or PAAMs.
Samtec’s Jim Alexander walks us through one of several live product demonstrations from IMS 2023. This one is presented with our friends at Otava, Rohde and Schwarz, Taoglas, and Avnet.
The modulated 5G FR2 signal is generated using a Rohde & Schwarz SMW200A vector signal generator which is sent to the transmitting PAAM. The receiving PAAM connects to a Rohde & Schwarz FSW43 Spectrum Analyzer where the signal is then demodulated and characterized.
The PAAM control software GUI provides beam steering functionality and sensor reporting.
Inside the PAAM design are Samtec SMPM interconnects, edge mount, surface mount and bullet adaptors, which handle transmit and receive signals from the Antenna in Module cards, then pass them over to the backplane Combiner Card.
This array can scan plus/minus 45 degrees in Azimuth and a plus/minus 15 degrees in Elevation, from 24 to 30 GHz. The phased array is a scalable design, due to the construction of the AiM card in this setup we have a 64 element, 8×8 dual polarization array. This is being utilized for both the Transmit and Receive PAAMs.
In this demo, we are sending a modulated 5G FR2 signal with a channel bandwidth of 100MHz, from the signal generator to the Transmitting PAAM, receiving it over the air through the Rx PAAM, and then finally de-modulating the signal on the spectrum analyzer, observing a stellar EVM (or error vector magnitude) performance of about 1.5%. EVM is a performance metric in wireless communications that quantifies the combination of all signal impairments in a given system.
The results displayed indicate the PAAMs communication link performance exceeds the specification set forth by the 3GPP standard in FR2 mmWave.
Obviously, a complex wideband demo like this takes teamwork and collaboration across a variety of partners.
- Otava, Inc., is a chip and intellectual property solutions provider targeting 5G, satellite communications, and defense applications. Their unique expertise is millimeter wave wideband chips and system on chips.
- Taoglas designs and manufactures advanced RF components for an array of IoT industries. Their unique custom capabilities are seen in the one-of-a-kind design of the array in the PAAM
- The Avnet-designed PicoZed is a highly flexible, rugged, System-On-Module that is based on the AMD Zynq-7000 AP SoC.
- Rohde and Schwarz offers a broad spectrum of market-leading test and measurement solutions for the newest wireless technologies as well as for RF and microwave applications up to 1.1 THz.
If you have questions, please contact us at RFGroup@Samtec.com.
Here’s a list of other mmWave, wideband links that may be of interest to you:
Ganged SMPM: New HIgh-Density, Puhs-On RF Solutions
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