MIMO Antenna Array System with Integrated 16x16 Butler Matrix and Power Amplifiers for 28GHz Wireless Communication

This paper proposes, for the first time, a MIMO antenna array system composing of 1x16 Quasi-Yagi antenna array, 16x16 high-dimension Butler matrix and power amplifiers for the 5G wireless communication system operating at 28GHz. Due to the integration of the power amplifiers between the radiation elements (1x16 Quasi-Yagi antenna array) and the beamforming network (16x16 Butler Matrix), 18dB additional power gain has been experimentally achieved at 28GHz. The influences from integration of power amplifiers that could occur the phase and amplitude deviation errors at the inputs of the antenna array are investigated by evaluation of the measured radiation patterns. A flexible system of PCBs is implemented to characterize the performance of power amplifiers in the MIMO antenna array system. Furthermore, the interconnections between the PCBs by bonding wires is discussed based on the simulated and measured results.