Highly integrated apertures of base station and terminal antennas

The development of base station and terminal antennas has been identified as a critical technological problem which must be overcome for successful implementation of future generations of mobile and wireless communication systems. To provide sophisticated beamforming, extensive use of digital signal processing is commonly used. However, there is a strong demand for advanced apertures for such antenna arrays which have excellent electrical and mechanical properties. The apertures must comprise wideband antenna elements, advanced directional couplers and power combing networks. All these components are characterized by electrical performance which is difficult to achieve. This paper presents some results of our research on the apertures of modern terminal and base station antennas.