A Low-cost and Low-power Single Bit Phased Array at Ka-Band for 5G Applications

In this paper, we develop a phase inverting technique to improve the received power of an antenna array, with an emphasis on the simplicity of the receiver hardware and reducing the power consumption. The goal is to propose a simple array architecture to develop intelligent algorithms to enhance the received power of the array. A test set-up with 8-element switched array antenna at 28 GHz has been developed to implement the proposed algorithms. The measured results reveal that in a high scattering environment, the phase inverting technique provides about 13 dB enhancement in the received power compared to a fixed array. This significant enhancement plays a major role in establishing a robust mm-wave communication link.