Millimeter-Wave Beamforming: Antenna Array Design Choices & Characterization

Millimeter-wave bands are of increasing interest for the satellite industry and potential 5G bands.

Antennas for 5G applications make use of these high frequencies to incorporate a large count of radiating elements. These antenna arrays are essential for beamforming operations that play an important part in such next generation networks.

This white paper introduces some of the fundamental theory behind beamforming antennas. In addition to these basic concepts, calculation methods for radiation patterns and a number of real world measurement results for linear arrays are shown.