China has developed a flexible 5G "paper" MIMO antenna for ships.

Chinese researchers have developed a flexible millimeter-scale 5G antenna made from a material that reduces costs by 95%. The 5G antenna is said to be based on ordinary glossy photo paper (Chinese abbreviation: 相纸).

It is planned to implement the new development on PLA Navy ships.

A study on this type of research, published in the peer-reviewed Chinese Journal of Ship Research, was led by Yang Wendong of Liaoning University of Technology.

Scientists have presented a flexible multiple-input/multiple-output (MIMO) antenna specifically adapted for the marine environment. According to the authors, this innovation will enable the implementation of millimeter-wave antennas suitable for challenging marine environments—with limited space, curved superstructure surfaces, and harsh operating conditions (vibration, humidity, and salt).

The antenna operates in two bands, 28/38 GHz, and is manufactured using screen printing of conductive paste onto a flexible paper backing. This is the aforementioned 0,3 mm thick photo paper, which serves as the base for the main components.

The developers emphasize the low cost, compactness, and the ability to conformally mount on non-flat ship surfaces. This technology theoretically makes it possible to equip ships en masse with a high-speed 5G network for large-scale data transfer and control. drones and integration into a single combat system.

But for now, this is still a laboratory prototype. Before actual use on warships, issues of durability in marine conditions and protection from external influences need to be addressed. After all, if the base is paper, the antenna's service life is clearly short.

Overall, the development fits into China's overall strategy for rapid and inexpensive equipment fleet modern means of navigation and communication.

Comments

[Vadim Topal Pasha]

The phrase "paper tigers" begins to take on new colors and meanings... :)

[Rustic i ......]

Well, here it goes: "paper antennas", "paper ships", "paper tigers"...

[Vadim Topal Pasha]

Oh, come on! ... I'm not making fun, just a little tongue-in-cheek... :)

[nepunamemuk]

I've been making antennas like this out of all sorts of "trash" for a long time now.
the neatest of adhesive foil

[novel66]

They spied, the bastards! They should have kept quiet.

[Sky strike fighter]

In the 21st century, everything is in plain sight. Everyone is learning from everyone else. Russia is developing next-generation memory: ultra-thin 5-nm films can withstand 100 million rewrite cycles. Foreign commercial and pre-production solutions are inferior in terms of rewrite lifespan to the best Russian laboratory samples (100 million cycles), although in terms of integration density and technological process maturity, Western and Korean developments are at a higher level – up to gigabit prototypes, while MIPT is currently researching single capacitors. Thus, Russian scientists have a scientific foundation in the field of ultra-high-endurance ferroelectric memory, but our country is lagging in engineering preparation for mass production and integration of our developments into real chips.

Researchers at the Moscow Institute of Physics and Technology have achieved record-breaking durability for hafnium zirconium oxide memory (5 nm, 100 million cycles). The nature of leakage currents and the mechanism of data loss are explained. The Russian prototype surpasses foreign counterparts in terms of rewrite lifespan. MIPT scientists have set a new durability record for ferroelectric memory based on hafnium zirconium oxide (Hf₀.₅Zr₀.₅O₂). The thinnest of the tested films, 5 nanometers thick, withstood more than 100 million rewrite cycles, which is thousands of times longer than modern flash memory. This allows memory to be tailored to specific applications. Thicker films (approximately 10 nm) are suitable for pacemakers, where long-term data retention is essential. For AI accelerators and video stream processing systems that require billions of fast rewrite cycles, an ultra-thin layer (5 nm) wins, sacrificing some charge retention.

[Green tea]

I hear about laboratory prototypes with incredible parameters almost daily. But I hear about production launches only once a year. Because suddenly, it turns out that going from a lab prototype to a factory model takes 10 years, millions of man-hours, and billions of dollars. And while we have plenty of brilliant developments, they're in no hurry to implement them in a gas station country, apparently hoping to buy them later (three times the XA). This has been a chronic problem since Tsarist Russia.

[Rustic i ......]

Quote from: nepunamemuk

I've been making antennas like this out of all sorts of "trash" for a long time now.
the neatest of adhesive foil

They say it can also be used to seal cracks in air ventilation.