We2F-5

OLED Display-Integrated Optically Invisible Phased Arrays

for Millimeter-Wave 5G Cellular Devices
Junho Park1, Jaehyun Choi1, Dongpil Park2, Myun-soo Kim2, Chisang You3, Doochan Jung3, Insu Song3,
Jaewook Lee3, Yong Nam Whang4, Yongha Lee5, Byounggwan Kang6, and Wonbin Hong1
1
Pohang University of Science and Technology, Pohang, Republic of Korea
2
Dongwoo Fine-Chem, Pyeongtaek, Repulblic of Korea
3
LG Electronics, Seoul, Republic of Korea
4
SK Telecom, Seongnam, Republic of Korea
5
Y.TECH, Gangneung, Republic of Korea
6
Corning Precision Materials, Asan, Republic of Korea
[email protected]

Abstract—This paper presents a display-integrated optically

invisible phased array using the antenna-on-display (AoD)
technology for millimeter-wave 5G cellular devices. Based on the
proposed approach, a massive number of antennas can be
embedded in organic light emitting diodes (OLED) or liquid
crystal displays (LCD) of cellular devices, while consuming near-
zero volume. To obtain simultaneously high optical transparency
and electrical conductivity, diamond-grid shaped transparent
electrodes are developed and analyzed. The designed and
fabricated antenna element exhibits an impedance bandwidth of
3.62 GHz with a center frequency of 26 GHz and a measured
realized gain of 1.78 dBi. The designed antenna element is
extended to the 1×4 phased array which is assembled with the 5G
beamformer board to verify the beamforming capabilities.
Measured radiation patterns confirm that the proposed phased
array module achieves a beam-steering range of ± 30° in the
azimuth with the estimated maximum peak EIRP of 14.14 dBm Fig. 1. The conceptual diagram of the mmWave 5G smartphone with
at 28 GHz. display-integrated phased array modules
Keywords—millimeter-wave antennas, 5G, beamforming,
Antenna-on-Display (AoD), phased arrays. However, these approaches do not take into consideration 5G
non-standalone (NSA) applications. Cavity-backed slot
I. INTRODUCTION antenna elements are built on the left- and right-side edges of
Commercial 5G cellular services have been officially the metallic casing of the mobile device [5]. Dual-polarized
launched by major operators in parts of the U.S. and South patch antennas are integrated into the rear glass of the terminal
Korea [1]. While we are witnessing the rapid proliferation of [6]. However, antenna arrays positioned at the rear and side
5G infrastructures such as base stations and CPEs (customer edge of the device are easily covered by the user’s hand,
premises equipment), 5G smartphones with seamless design which results in significant blockage losses in the order of 30–
remain elusive due to the difficulty of integrating a 5G RF 40 dB depending on the distance between the device and the
front-end in cellular devices. For example, the first user’s hand [7]. Anti-reflective layer with grating strips has
commercial 5G smartphone supporting millimeter-wave been proposed and added in the bezel area for co-locating
(mmWave) 5G service is implemented using a separate 28 mmWave 5G antenna arrays and LTE antennas in mobile
GHz module incorporating 10 antenna elements into its 7 mm terminals [8]. However, this method is inappropriate for full-
thick body due to the lack of real estate within the cellular screen devices due to the required large real estate of
devices [2]. electromagnetic directors and reflectors in the bezel region.
To implement 5G RF front-ends within cellular devices, a Considering these requirements and mobile design trends,
number of antenna packaging methods have been proposed by an antenna-on-display (AoD) concept involving the
global leading industries and institutes [3]-[6], [8]. 32 low- integration of optically invisible antennas in the transparent
profile antenna elements are arranged in the outer area of the display region is recently proposed in [9]. Based on this
display (bezel region) to maximize the beamsteering angles previously reported design concept, this paper demonstrates a
and minimize the real-estate [3]. A set of 4 sub-arrays each first-of-its-kind display-integrated optically invisible phased
with 12 antenna elements is positioned in the mobile phone array module for 5G cellular devices as exemplified in Fig. 1.
chassis to provide 360° coverage in the elevation plane [4].

978-1-7281-6815-9/20/$31.00 © 2020 IEEE 699 2020 IEEE/MTT-S International Microwave Symposium

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 Front glass 500 μm
FPC
Transparent electrodes (Alloy) 240 nm
INS 2 μm
Transparent dielectric film 180 μm
AoD layer
Adhesive layer 100 μm
Bonding area
Backlight layer 100 μm

Back plate/Cushion tape 100 / 160 μm

Fig. 2. The stack up of the proposed display-integrated phased array

module.

Fig. 5. Antenna configurations consisting of diamond gird

transparent electrodes.

Fig. 3. The configuration of transparent diamond-grid electrodes

S-parameters [dB]

Fig. 6. Photographs of the fabricated transparent diamond grid

antenna element.

(a) II. OPTIMIZATION OF TRANSPARENT ELECTRODES

A multilayer lamination is developed using a
photolithography process to implement the display-integrated
phased array module, as shown in Fig. 2. Transparent
S-parameters [dB]

electrodes and dielectric layers are positioned between the

backlight layer and the front glass of the cellular devices. The
adhesive layer and the transparent dielectric film can be
equivalently expressed as an effective substrate featuring a
relative dielectric constant of εr = 3.2 and the loss tangent of
tan δ = 0.01. To maintain the image quality of the display, the
added transparent electrodes for implementing transparent
antennas should achieve high optical transparency which is
(b) defined as the amount of light that can be transmitted through
a material without scattering.
Fig. 4. Simulated insertion loss (S21) of the transparent 10 mm-long To achieve simultaneously high optical transparency and
CPW as a function of wver (a) and whor (b). electrical conductivity, diamond-grid shaped transparent
electrodes are developed, as illustrated in Fig. 3. The
In Section II, the stack-up of the proposed phased array transparent electrodes are used to constitute the coplanar
module and the transparent electrodes is developed and waveguide (CPW) transmission line to investigate the
analyzed. Section III demonstrates the detailed design of the correlation between the optical transparency and electrical
proposed array module. Simulated and measured results are conductivity. The optical transparency of grid-patterns can be
discussed in Section IV. The paper is concluded in Section V. calculated as the ratio of the whole area to the open area [10].

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 0

Measurement
Simulation
-5

-10

-15

-20
20 22 24 26 28 30 32
Frequency [GHz]

Fig. 7. Measured and simulated S11 of the transparent diamond grid

antenna element.

Fig. 9. The measurement setup for the beamsteering phased array

-15 0 15 module
0
-30 30

-10 -45 45
0
-60 60 0° Beam
-20
7° Beam
-75 75 -5 16° Beam
-30
25° Beam
32° Beam
-40 -90 90
Eθ, Meas. Eθ, Sim. Eφ, Meas. Eφ, Sim. -10

Fig. 8. Measured and simulated normalized far-field radiation pattern -15

of transparent diamond grid antenna element.
-20
-90 -60 -30 0 30 60 90
Azimuth [deg]
 Optical transparency =  
Fig. 10. Measured normalized 2-D far-field radiation patterns of the
Therefore, as the optical transparency increases, the length fabricated display-integrated phased array module.
of the horizontal (whor) and vertical (wver) axes of the open grid
becomes longer. However, as the area of the grid-shaped dielectric substrate using a photolithography process. The
electrodes is reduced, the electrical resistance is significantly entire phased array consists of four patch antennas with the
increased. In order to verify this effect of the grid size (wver length (LP) of 2.7 mm and the width (WP) of 2.8 mm. An
and whor), insertion loss characteristics of the CPW model are impedance transformer is added to match the antenna input
analyzed and simulated using the 3-D electromagnetic (EM) impedance to the characteristic impedance of the signal line
simulator, Ansys HFSS, as illustrated in Fig. 4. The outer on a flexible printed circuit board (FPC). The width (Wf) of
dimensions of the CPW model are optimized to match the the antenna feedline is 0.3 mm and the edge-to-edge distance
characteristic impedance of 50 Ω. The reference unit cell, (Gf) between the ground pad and the signal line is 0.11 mm.
which is used for antenna design, features wmesh = 3 μm, wver = The separation (S = 7 mm) between antenna elements is
100 μm, and whor = 50 μm. While the other parameters are adjusted to minimize the sidelobe level. Each feedline of
fixed, increasing wver from 100 μm (REF) to 250 μm, the antenna elements is electrically connected to the signal line on
optical transparency increases from 88% to 90%, while the the FPC using an anisotropic conductive film (ACF) bonding
insertion loss is deteriorated by 0.2 dB at 28 GHz, as shown in process. The prototype consisting of the single antenna
Fig. 4 (a). In the case of the whor, the same tendency is element is fabricated to verify the passive level performance
confirmed as increasing whor from 50 μm (REF) to 250 μm, as of the designed antenna, as illustrated in Fig. 6. Due to the
illustrated in Fig. 4 (b). Finally, the dimensions of the difficulty of attaching a connector to the sample, a probing
diamond-grid unit cells are determined considering this trade- pad was formed on the FPC.
off relationship between optical transparency and electrical
IV. EXPERIMENTAL RESULTS
conductivity.
The S-parameters of the fabricated transparent diamond-
III. DESIGN PROCESS grid antenna element are measured using a Keysight N5247A
The devised transparent electrodes are used to comprise an PNA-X with a probe station. The measured reflection
antenna element with fundamental TM010 radiation mode, as coefficients (Fig. 7) feature an impedance bandwidth of 3.62
illustrated in Fig. 5. The antenna is formed on the transparent GHz (24.24 – 27.86 GHz). The discrepancy between the
measured and simulated results is mainly attributed to the

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 V. CONCLUSION
In this paper, a display-integrated optically invisible
phased array module for future 5G/B5G cellular devices is
presented and demonstrated. Numerical results confirm that
diamond-grid transparent electrodes feature trade-off relations
between optical transparency and electrical conductivity. The
fabricated phased array modules demonstrate the possibilities
of integrating the optically invisible phased arrays into the
transparent region of active displays. Future works will focus
on realizing the display-integrated 5G massive MIMO system,
which can improve the diversity gain and channel capacity.

ACKNOWLEDGMENT
The authors thank Keysight Technologies Korea for their
generous support. This work was supported in part by the
Basic Science Research Program through the National
Research Foundation of Korea (NRF) funded by the Ministry
of Education under Grant 2019R1A6A3A13096306 and in
part by the Institute of Information & Communications
Technology Promotion (IITP) grant funded by the Korean
government (MIST) under Grant 2018-0-00733.

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