Beamforming techniques and RF transceiver design

Abstract

Phased arrays exploit electronic beamforming to create an electronically steerable beam pattern. This renders antenna gain in certain directions and rejection in others, i.e. spatial filtering. Until recently, phased array systems exploited dedicated RF technologies leading to relatively costly systems, e.g. for nautical, airplane radar systems, and satellite communication. More recently, low-cost highly integrated beamforming concepts received considerable interest in academia but also industry, enabling consumer applications e.g. in base-stations for macro- and femto-cells, car-radar and 60GHz wideband radio links. (Bi-)CMOS beamforming techniques are at the heart of such systems. This forum reviews beamforming techniques suitable for IC-integration, and discusses related (Bi-)CMOS transceiver designs. Several techniques will be discussed, e.g. RF phase-shifting, LO-phase shifting, I/Q Vector modulation and digital processing. Also the relation between key radar and communication system requirements and transceiver-IC requirements will be considered. Finally, trends and challenges will be discussed in a panel.