Today, March 17, the TASS news outlet, citing its sources, reported that scientists from the St. Petersburg State Electrotechnical University LETI managed to develop their own microwave antenna for fifth-generation 5G cellular communications. Moreover, experts noted that their new-generation antenna is capable of surpassing currently available foreign analogues in terms of bandwidth and cost-effectiveness, which, of course, is an extremely important advantage at the moment. Also, representatives of the press service of the Priority 2030 program from the Ministry of Science and Higher Education reported that the new Russian antenna is able to almost completely cover the range of the 5G standard.
The authors of the project said that at the moment there are many low-cost typical antennas on the market that meet the 5G standard. For example, we are talking about Chinese-made products, which are presented in a fairly wide range. But these devices have one rather noticeable problem – they all have rather limited radio frequency characteristics, operating in a certain and very narrow frequency band. Russian specialists managed to eliminate this problem by creating a very unique development of its kind.
“We have developed a new type of antenna for 5G systems, for the production of which cheap manufacturing technologies and component base are used. At the same time, our device is able to reliably operate in a wider band, in particular, it completely covers the allocated 4.8-5 GHz range,” said Lyubov Lyubina, Deputy Head of the Department of Theoretical Fundamentals of Radio Engineering at St. Petersburg Electrotechnical University LETI.
The specialists explained that the design of the Russian antenna uses the principle of operation of the Fabry-Perot optical system adapted to the characteristics of the radio frequency range to convert light. This system provides the ability to control the beam in a fairly narrow frequency range at a very large distance, which provides design versatility in real use scenarios. At the same time, the component base of the new device is made of durable stainless steel based on the technology of laser cutting of parts, while the plastic housing of the antenna is made using 3D printing. Now, apparently, it’s time to make the device and conduct field tests.