A Multi-Port Dual Polarized Antenna Coupled mm-Wave CMOS Receiver with Element-level Pattern and Notch Programmability and Passive Interferer Rejection Capability

Millimeter-wave based wireless communication and sensing systems for future 5G applications are expected to operate in a complex electromagnetic environment with dynamically changing near-field conditions. This is particularly true for user equipment where presence of near-field blockages and scatterers can significantly affect the front-end antenna and therefore the system performance. Classical beamforming architectures that rely on identical patterns on all elements can be extremely energy inefficient in such cases. Element-level pattern shaping that can dynamically reconfigure the properties of a single antenna can not only allow mitigation of such complex electromagnetic environment, but incorporate system properties that are distinct from classical arrays. In this work, we present a multi-port on-chip dual polarized antenna and a multi-port receiver co-design approach that allows dynamic pattern reconfiguration and element notch control that can reject interferers directly at the antenna surface before beamforming. We demonstrate this in state of the art receiver performance in a 65-nm CMOS process at 70 GHz with element maxima and notch tuning capability of more than 90° while allowing high sensitivity and minimizing impedance mismatches and power losses.