Many in the telecom industry have debated whether millimeter wave spectrum could be effectively commercialized. But recent advances in beamforming antennas and generous spectrum allocations have positioned it as a gateway to 5G’s most bandwidth-hungry and exciting applications, such as immersive telepresence, VR/AR and remote operations. mmWave is also expected to rescue mobile operators in the US, South Korea and Japan as they run out of 5G mid-band capacity in 2021 or 2022 due to ever-increasing mobile data usage.
This paper explores the most important commercial enabler of mmWave, analog beamforming, by comparing two leading technologies: active phased arrays (APAs) and Holographic Beam Forming® (HBF). Digital beamforming, i.e., Massive MIMO, will not be discussed here because exorbitant power requirements and component costs associated with high sampling rates preclude it from practical usability at mmWave frequencies.
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