Dr.-Ing. Mohammed Ali

Modern wireless applications such as 5G, beyond-5G and 6G backhaul as well as imaging radar increase demand for active phased array front-ends. Beamforming chips for the phased array systems should occupy limited silicon area depending on the operation signal wavelength. The antenna size is also wavelength related parameter. For these two reasons, it is desirable to have one antenna array for both Tx and Rx paths. Single antenna for both Tx and Rx paths mandates the use of bi-directional beamformer chips. Bi-directionality can be carried out by means of switches at the front-end. However, switches impose losses to both paths leading to reduced output power and less receiver sensitivity. Alternatively, switchless bi-directional beamformer can be a good candidate with more effort put for designing bi-directional building blocks in a single core fashion keeping the chip size unchanged. Challenges such as port isolation should be considered and taken care of. In this project, bi-directional single core mixer is of interest whereas topology should be carefully chosen, implemented and characterized.