CEA-Leti & Radiall to Develop Ultra-Low Profile E-Band Antennas for 5G Networks

Leti, a research institute of CEA Tech, and Radiall, a global manufacturer of interconnect solutions, have come together to launch a five-year common lab to design innovative antennas to meet infrastructure requirements of 5G networks and photonics components for harsh environments.

Announced during Leti Innovation Days in Grenoble, the common lab will develop low profile, millimeter-wave antenna solutions for backhaul/fronthaul applications.

5G networks require high-speed, point-to-point communication at millimeter-wave frequencies. The explosive increase in ultra-dense 5G infrastructure systems required to accommodate high-speed mobile data traffic and Internet of Things data is fueling a demand for low-cost, robust and reliable RF subsystems. These include compact and reconfigurable antennas that can be integrated on urban buildings and street furniture with minimal deployment cost. 

At millimeter-wave frequencies between 30 and 300 GHz, severe path loss must be compensated through high-gain antennas enabled by transmit-array designs. Leveraging its expertise in antenna design, CEA-Leti previously collaborated with Radiall on transmit-array technology development. This collaboration resulted in a V-band (57-66 GHz) high-gain (32 dBi) antenna delivering up to 20 Gb/s that Radiall added to its product line. 

Multi-source transmit-array architecture is a promising solution to address this challenge because it minimizes the thickness of the antenna while maintaining stability of the antenna gain over the entire bandwidth and controlling the sidelobe levels.