Taoglas® and MixComm are partnering to co-develop a 5G new radio (NR) mmWave smart antenna subsystem covering 26.5 to 29.5 GHz. The antenna will support small cells, repeaters and customer-premises equipment for infrastructure and 5G IoT devices.

The antenna subsystem is based on Taoglas’ KHA16.23C smart antenna and integrates MixComm’s newly announced 5G 28 GHz beamforming front-end IC, the SUMMIT 2629. The KHA16.23C is a 2D array in a multi-layer PCB containing 16 antenna elements and integrating the MixComm RFICs, with layers for power optimization, thermal control, digital control and RF feed lines — in a footprint of 53 mm x 84 mm.

The Taoglas design is scalable, supporting arrays up to 1024 elements, depending on device implementation.

SUMMIT 2629 Functionality

MixComm’s 28 GHz SUMMIT 2629 IC provides a complete RF front-end, combining power and low noise amplifiers, passive beamformers, T/R switching, calibration and control functions. Operating from 26.5 to 29.5 GHz, the RFIC is fabricated with Globalfoundries’ 45RFSOI process.

The functionality of the SUMMIT 2629 comprises:

  • Four-element, dual-polarization transmit and receive, with independent polarization beam directions.
  • High power and high efficiency SOI CMOS power amplifiers.
  • Low transmit and receive power consumption.
  • 6-bit, 360 degree phase shifting and 16 dB variable gain with 0.5 dB resolution in both transmit and receive paths.
  • Fully calibrated gain and phase matching across all channels of the IC.
  • High speed SPI with large on-chip beam table storage.
  • On-chip temperature and power sensing, with gain control for temperature compensation.
  • Wafer-level chip-scale packaging compatible with low-cost PCB manufacturing.
  • Ability to scale to large arrays with multiple chip-addressing modes.

“Our combined design builds on the MixComm SUMMIT 2629’s breakthrough efficiency-resolving performance limitations preventing broad market adoption. MixComm is excited about the opportunities our combined offering will bring to our global carrier and infrastructure partners," said Mike Noonen, CEO of MixComm.