Antenna Arrays - Essential part of MIMO & Beamforming
Antenna array is an aggregate of radiating elements in an electrical and geometrical arrangement that will result in a desired radiation characteristics.
An antenna array is set of antenna elements commonly organized in a structure such as an array of rows and columns. Signals are amplified (referred as gain) by transmitting different versions of the same signal from all antennas and can be steered towards particular direction.
An antenna array can be used for both transmission and reception.
Array with two elements is considered below. Antennas are converting electrical signal to electromagnetic waves. A receiving antenna will convert the sum of two incident waves into a received signal. No difference in propagation delays in two antennas are assumed.
Gain and its pattern are derived below. With increase in antenna elements, gain increased and beam width decreased. This is the basis of higher number of antenna element arrangement and beamforming. Will continue this topic in upcoming posts.
Reference – Butovitsch et al. (June 2020), Advanced Antenna Systems for 5G Network Deployments
Youtube link - Antenna Arrays - Beamforming and MIMO - Part of 5G course- link is in description - YouTube
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