On the use of focal-plane arrays in mm-wave 5G base stations

In mobile communications, the research and development for the fifth generation (5G) has gained significant interest in the recent years. The high data rate requirements for 5G introduce more challenges in terms of the system power consumption. Hence, considering the base station, a more efficient antenna system is necessary in order to provide higher signal to noise ratios to achieve the required data rates, while consuming the lowest possible amount of power. In this paper a phased array fed reflector is proposed as a solution for 5G base stations. The main idea is to use the high gain of a reflector antenna to achieve high effective isotropic radiated power (EIRP). That in turn allows the reduction of the number of feed array elements as well as the amount of supplied power. Consequently, the low cost silicon-based amplifiers can be utilized . The proposed solution includes our vision about some aspects of the antenna system regarding cell coverage, beamforming as well as antenna gain and EIRP. Finally, a system concept for the base station antenna subsystem is presented.