All-Digital Antennas for mmWave Systems

To realize high performance mmWave communications, beamforming antenna systems will need to be smarter, faster, smaller, lower power, cost less, have lower latency and be easier to integrate than current technologies. Much like with previous telecommunication systems, integrating important processing and signal conditioning functions will enable more cost-effective and compact mmWave beamforming antennas. The development of complex mmWave RF and analog hardware for 5G and tactical communications will initiate an inevitable evolutionary trend in digital communications, with digital processing eventually supplanting analog. The recent emergence of an all-digital antenna approach leveraging antenna processing units (APU) and ASICs could accelerate this trend, further reducing the time-to-market for highly anticipated multi-data path mmWave 5G and tactical communications.