The evolutionary path of contemporary wireless communication systems to future ones is twofold. On the one hand it relies on the continuous enhancement of terrestrial cellular communications network such as 4G into 5G and on the other hand on the transition from present satellite communications (Satcom) networks as for instance the Inmarsat (1) to emerging satellite megaconstellation such as Oneweb (2) . In both cases the priority is to increase the service capacity and bridge the so called societal or geographical digital gap. There are plenty of open critical ICT issues at software/data processing level (protocol, spectrum, waveforms management and optimization) and at hardware level. The latter is far more critical as it requires a heavier infrastructural investment and poses tougher technological challenges to be solved.

In this panorama there are two technical choices which are considered as the main enabling factors to render future high speed wireless communications. The first is the use of millimetre wave frequencies (above 20 GHz) which open up the access to Gbps wide bandwidths. Second is the use of adaptive multiple beam steering technologies which enhance the user capacity.

After a first migration of the present 4G to the 6 GHz frequency range the 5G is posed to step up into the higher frequency band (10 GHz, 28 GHz, and finally reach as high as 86 GHz ) which are currently being discussed by industrial and institutional stakeholders (1)

As frequency increases, the beam steering accuracy is increasingly sensitive to external ambient conditions (such as temperature, humidity, RF noise and system ageing) (2) and thus affect link loss and error rate. For the case of high end RADAR applications, system calibration (3) (TRX calibration procedure) was regularly needed to sustain beam steering accuracy and thus reliable radar operation. However as MIMO expands to consumer electronics the associated cost and maintenance model is no longer viable and needs to be changed to a non hermetically sealed system, with self-calibrating capability that results in low cost. NANOSMART proposes the incorporation of electronic smart systems sensing temperature, humidity and RF interference to compensate for such effects in real-time and provide on the fly phased array response recalibration. A smart system that would have the ability to reconfigure itself in real time to battle changing conditions would drastically reduce the required power and increase wireless link availability.

NANOSMART global vision is to address the current issues in hardware technology for wireless applications by providing a smaller, smarter, more efficient, lower cost technology able to scale to higher frequencies than existing solutions. The main objectives of NANOSMART are listed in the following table

In conclusion, NANOSMART will design, develop, fabricate and demonstrate novel components based on two material technologies, fully integrated and capitalize that by realising two demonstrators for radar and IoT / wireless applications to prove the concept of the project.