We present a seven-bit multilayer true-time delay (TTD) circuit operating from 1 to 7GHz for wideband phased array antennas. By stacking advanced substrates with low dielectric loss, the TTD with PCB process is miniaturized and has low insertion loss. The signal vias with surrounding ground vias are designed to provide impedance matching throughout the band, allowing the overall group delay to be flat. The standard deviation of the TTD for all states is below 19ps, which is 1.87% of the maximum group delay. The maximum delay is 1016ps with resolution of 8ps. The implemented TTD is 36.6×19.4mm2 and consumes 0.65mW at 3.3V supply for all the delay states. The measured input/output return loss is better than 12.1dB for the band of 1-7GHz.

A subarray signal processing scheme is described for a large-scale two-dimensional analog-digital hybrid beamformer to be used in quasi-millimeter-wave-band mobile communication systems. Multiple analog phased arrays direct their respective beams to multiple users, enabling space-division multiple access (SDMA). An iterative soft-input soft-output (SISO) multi-user detector recovers multi-user signals from subarray output signals corrupted by inter-user interference (IUI). In addition, a phased-array directivity control algorithm is derived based on inter-subarray signal phase-difference estimation from inter-beam-interference (IBI)-cancelled subarray output signals. Simulation results demonstrate that our proposed scheme achieves reduced hardware complexity, IUI-resistant multi-user signal detection, and IBI-resistant multi-user-tracking phased-array directivity control.