Researchers from Birmingham have unveiled a new beam-steering antenna that boosts data transmission efficiency for "beyond 5G" and unlocks a spectrum of frequencies previously unreachable for mobile communications.
The device can provide continuous "wide-angle" beam steering, enabling it to track a moving mobile phone user in the same way that a satellite dish turns to track a moving object, but with noticeably faster speeds, according to experimental results presented today for the first time at the 3rd International Union of Radio Science Atlantic / Asia-Pacific Radio Science Meeting. The technology was developed by engineers at the University of Birmingham, and it has significantly increased data transmission efficiency at millimetre wave frequencies, particularly those identified for 5G (mmWave) and 6G, where high efficiency is currently only possible using slow, mechanically steered antenna solutions.
Dr. James Churm, Dr. Muhammad Rabbani, and Professor Alexandros Feresidis, Head of the Metamaterials Engineering Laboratory, developed the beam-steering antenna as a replacement for fixed base station antenna, for which existing technology exhibits decreased efficiency at higher frequencies, limiting the use of these frequencies for long-distance transmission.
The device, about the size of an iPhone, employs a metamaterial*, which is a metal sheet with a series of micrometer-sized holes that are evenly spaced apart. By effectively "concentrating" the beam into a highly directive signal and then "redirecting this energy as desired," an actuator can control the height of a cavity within a metamaterial, deliver micrometre movements, and, depending on its position, the antenna can control the deflection of a radio wave team. This improves transmission efficiency.