While people are rejoicing at the coming of the 5G era, 6G network planning is already in full swing. Recently, Zhan Yu, '22, an undergraduate of Electronic Science and Technology at the School of Microelectronics, reported dielectric ceramic materials with excellent wide-temperature stability that can be applied to the development of wireless communication system antennas. The related technology has the potential to be applied to 6G. The research paper entitled Ultra-high Q and low dielectric constant lithium titanate based ceramics with outstanding wide temperature stability for millimeter wave microstrip antenna was published in the Journal of Alloys and Compounds.

6G, the sixth generation of mobile communication technology, is expected to break through the network capacity and transmission speed of the 5G era, and the network latency may also be reduced from milliseconds to microseconds. In 2020, China's "6G Wireless Hotspot Technology Research White Paper" mentions that 6G will complete the “massive amount of things connectivity” and “everything smart connectivity” to build a large number of connected terminal devices on land and sea as well as in the air.

Serving as the core component in the wireless communication system, the antenna can realize the mutual conversion between the electric signal of the feeder and the electromagnetic signal in the wireless channel. As the substrate of microstrip antenna, the dielectric properties of the microwave dielectric ceramic will directly determine the performance of the microstrip antenna. In light of this, taking into account the impact of temperature variability on antenna performance, Zhan Yu carried out a study on the temperature stability of dielectric substrate, and developed dielectric ceramics with wide temperature stability while ensuring the ultra-low loss with respect to the demand of 5G millimeter wave technology and the construction of full-coverage wireless network in the coming 6G era.

The paper is Zhan Yu’s third first-author paper indexed by SCI. It is also one of the achievements of his independent project "Research on the integration technology of terahertz array antenna based on high performance lithium-based dielectric ceramics". The advanced ultra-high performance lithium dielectric ceramic substrates developed for terahertz frequency band are lightweight, stable and cost-effective with low loss, which are expected to be widely used for the construction of wireless communication systems in the 6G era. Now the project has successfully passed the online evaluation of the 17th "Challenge Cup" National Undergraduate Extracurricular Academic Science and Technical Works Competition and entered the final round of the national finals.

"I will be dedicated to the research of more ‘stable’ dielectric ceramics, and further the development of related terahertz components in the follow-up research, to boost 6G development in China," said Zhan Yu.

By Zou Yu

Editor: Eva Yin