Experimental Validation and Applications of mm-Wave 8 × 8 Antenna-in-Package (AiP) Array Platform

Phased array antennas play an indispensable role in millimeter-wave (mmWave) communications. The Antenna-in-package (AiP) system combines advanced antenna and packaging technology, making it highly valuable for various cellular, radar and automative applications. The benefits it brings in terms of small size, low development costs, low power consumption and fast beam-steering capability further drive the vast deployment of phased array antennas in mmWave systems. In this paper, an 8 × 8 AiP experimental platform is presented and its operating performance is measured and analyzed. Further, two application examples of the AiP are presented, namely, a platform for investigating the phased array calibration performance of different methods, and an AiP-based channel sounder for channel characterization. The performance of the channel sounder is verified by analysing the angle of arrival (AoA), angle of departure (AoD) and propagation delay of the measured dominant propagation components (DPCs).