Why Future Mobile JCAS Systems May Move onto the Screen?
Each generation of wireless communication has reshaped not only network capability, but also the physical design of mobile devices. Early mobile phones relied on exposed external antennas for basic voice communication, while modern 4G and 5G smartphones integrate multiple compact antennas along the device edges to support high-speed multiple-input multiple-output (MIMO) connectivity [1]. As wireless systems move toward 6G, however, this conventional edge-mounted antenna design is facing increasing challenges. Future 6G mobile devices are expected to operate at millimeter-wave (mmWave) and even sub-terahertz (sub-THz) frequency bands while simultaneously supporting joint communication and sensing (JCAS) capabilities [2]. These higher frequencies require stronger robustness against user-induced blockage caused by normal hand interactions, while the limited physical space of smartphones and wearable devices makes dense antenna integration increasingly difficult. As a result, conventional edge-mounted antennas are gradually becoming a bottleneck for future mobile wireless systems.
Moving Antennas onto the Screen
Recent advances in transparent antenna technologies are making on-screen wireless integration increasingly practical for future mobile devices. Instead of distributing antenna elements only along the narrow device edges, future mobile systems may directly utilize the much larger screen area for wireless communication. Figure 1 illustrates an example of such an on-screen wireless architecture, where transparent antenna elements are integrated directly onto the display surface of a mobile device [3]. By deploying antennas as an integrated planar array across the screen, future devices may achieve denser antenna integration, improved beamforming capability, and stronger robustness against blockage compared with conventional edge-mounted designs.
Figure. 1 On-screen wireless architecture [3]
- Larger Effective Aperture: Compared with conventional edge-mounted antennas, utilizing the screen surface enables a much larger usable antenna area on compact mobile devices, supporting denser antenna integration and stronger beamforming capability.
- Improved Robustness to Hand Blockage: Since users naturally avoid fully covering the display during normal interactions, on-screen antenna arrays may experience less severe blockage compared with conventional edge-mounted antenna designs.
- Better Scalability for Future 6G Systems: As wireless systems continue moving toward mmWave and sub-THz frequency bands, the smaller antenna size at higher frequencies makes large-scale on-screen antenna integration increasingly practical.
Why Higher Frequencies Make On-Screen Design Important
The importance of on-screen antenna systems becomes even more evident as wireless communication moves toward higher carrier frequencies. Compared with conventional sub-6 GHz systems, mmWave and sub-THz communication experience much stronger propagation loss and are significantly more sensitive to blockage caused by normal hand interactions during smartphone usage. As a result, maintaining reliable communication on compact mobile devices becomes increasingly difficult for conventional edge-mounted antenna designs, especially under realistic usage conditions where part of the device is naturally covered by the user’s hand.
Interestingly, while higher frequencies introduce stronger attenuation and blockage sensitivity, they also lead to physically smaller antenna elements, making dense on-screen antenna integration increasingly practical on compact devices. This creates new opportunities for on-screen antenna systems, where the large display surface can support larger antenna arrays and more capable beamforming compared with conventional edge-mounted designs.
Figure. 2. Communication performance comparison under hand-blockage conditions. [3]
Figure 2 shows a simulation example comparing conventional edge-mounted antennas and on-screen antenna arrays under different carrier frequencies ranging from 28 GHz to 300 GHz under realistic hand-blockage conditions. As the carrier frequency increases, the communication performance of both designs gradually decreases due to stronger attenuation and blockage effects at higher frequencies. However, the relative advantage of the on-screen design becomes increasingly significant as the frequency increases. This trend suggests that the challenge of future high-frequency mobile communication may not simply be achieving higher data rates, but also finding more scalable and blockage-robust antenna architectures for compact mobile devices.
Why This Matters
Future mobile devices may require much more than simply faster wireless communication. As 6G systems continue evolving toward JCAS, mobile devices will increasingly need to interact with their surrounding environments in more intelligent and adaptive ways. In this context, the screen may gradually evolve from a passive display surface into an active part of the wireless system itself. By integrating antenna systems directly onto the display surface, future mobile devices may support not only high-capacity communication, but also more robust connectivity under realistic usage conditions where hand blockage becomes unavoidable. At the same time, because wireless propagation naturally changes with hand and finger interactions on the screen surface, on-screen wireless systems may also open new possibilities for future JCAS-enabled sensing capabilities.
Although many practical challenges still remain, including transparent material efficiency, device integration, and real-world deployment complexity, on-screen antenna systems provide an interesting direction for future compact 6G mobile devices operating at increasingly higher frequencies.
Stay tuned as our ongoing research continues exploring how future mobile screens could evolve beyond traditional displays into integrated communication and sensing platforms for next-generation wireless systems.
An article by Shun Zhuge.
Further Reading
- Wang, L. Sun, Z. Du, and Z. Zhang, “Antenna Design for Modern Mobile Phones: A Review,” Electromagnetic Science, 2024.
- Liu, Y. Cui, C. Masouros, J. Xu, T. X. Han, Y. C. Eldar, and S. Buzzi, “Integrated Sensing and Communications: Towards Dual-functional Wireless Networks for 6G and Beyond,” IEEE Journal on Selected Areas in Communications, 2022.
- Zhuge and Q. Wang, “ScreenAnt: Transparent On-Screen Antennas for 6G,” in Proceedings of IEEE International Conference on Communications, 2026.
An article by Shun Zhuge