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Scientists at the University of Birmingham in the UK have revealed a new “beam-steering antenna,” which will increase the efficiency of data transmission beyond that of currently available 5G technologies. It will also open up a range of mobile communication frequencies that are inaccessible to currently deployed technologies.
The researchers presented their findings at the 3rd International Union of Radio Science Atlantic, Asia-Pacific Radio Science Meeting on June 3. The team’s experimental results have shown that the antenna can provide continuous wide-angle beam steering. This allows the device to track a moving mobile phone user just like a satellite dish will turn to track a moving object, but at much faster speeds.
The device, which is around the size of an iPhone, uses a metamaterial made from a metal sheet with an array of regularly spaced holes that are micrometres in diameter. It has an actuator which controls the height of the cavity within the metamaterial with micrometre movements. According to the position, the antenna will control the deflection of radio waves. This means that a “concentrated beam” can be redirected as required, increasing the efficiency of transmission.
Metamaterials are materials that have been engineered to have special properties not usually found in naturally occurring substances. They typically have properties like the manipulation of electromagnetic waves by blocking, absorbing, enhancing or bending waves.
The technology has demonstrated vast improvements in data transmission efficiency at frequencies ranging across the millimetre wave spectrum. Specifically, those identified for mmWave and 6G transmission. Currently, high efficiency with these spectrums is only achievable using slow, mechanically steered antenna solutions.
The device is compatible with existing 5G specifications that are in use for mobile networks. Further, the technology doesn’t need the complex and inefficient feeding networks usually required by antenna systems. Instead, it relies on a low-complexity system which can improve performance while being simple to fabricate.
“Although we developed the technology for use in 5G, our current models show that our beam steering technology may be capable of 94% efficiency at 300 GHz. The technology can also be adapted for use in vehicle-to-vehicle, vehicle-to-infrastructure, vehicular radar, and satellite communications, making it good for next-generation use in automotive, radar, space and defence applications,” said James Churm, one of the researchers behind the device, in a press statement.
The University has filed a patent application for the newly-developed beam-steering antenna techno and is seeking industry partners for collaboration, product development and licensing.
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