Millimeter-Wave Phased Array Antennas with Mixed Sub-Arrays and Single-Elements for Suppressed Grating Lobes

Millimeter-wave (mmWave) technology was first introduced by 5G for high-capacity and low-latency communication and phased array antenna modules (PAAMs) are widely used for this purpose. Sub-arrays are generally applied for enhancing the antenna gain and hence decreasing the power consumption, but results in grating lobes when the scanning angle is large. PAAMs with mixed sub-arrays and single-elements are proposed in this paper. Phased arrays with fixed gap between elements have been analyzed where peaks, grating lobes and nulls have been theoretically identified. As a result, some single elements can be properly located into sub-array-based module so as the grating lobes can by suppressed. The proposed modules reduce the number of front-ends and then decrease the power consumption and keep low grating lobes simultaneously.