Imec Unveils Low-Power 7Gbps 60GHz Transceiver For Wireless Consumers
Imec and Panasonic have together developed a prototype of a 60GHz
radio transceiver which can reach data rates of 7Gbps over short distances with
very low power consumption.
The chip achieves this performance over the 4 channels specified by the IEEE802.11ad standard.
Imec says its latest low-power 60GHz solution is an important step towards adoption of 60GHz technology in low-cost battery-operated consumer products such as smart phones and tablets.
Today's wireless consumer electronic products are including more
and more data-intensive applications, while applications below 10GHz such as
WLAN face spectrum scarcity. This drives wireless system designers to explore
higher frequency bands such as the unlicensed band around 60GHz.
This band is available throughout the world and enables multi-Gbps wireless communication over short distances. However, to enable 60GHz radio solutions for portable mass-market products, cost, area and power consumption need to be drastically reduced.
Imec's transceiver front-end prototype IC (integrated circuit) achieves an error vector management better than -17dB for QAM16 modulation in the 4 channels specified by the IEEE802.11ad standard, reaching data rates of 7Gbps over short distances.
The IC is implemented in 40nm low-power digital CMOS targeting
low-cost volume production. The TX (transmitter) signal path, consisting of a
power amplifier and a mixer, consumes only 90mW with 10.2dBm OP1dB. The RX
(receiver) signal path, consisting of a low noise amplifier and a mixer,
consumes only 35mW with a noise frequency of 5.5dB and 30dB gain. The electrostatic
discharge robustness is more than 4kV HBM (human body model).
The compact core area of only 0.7mm2 makes this transceiver front-end solution particularly suitable
for use in phased arrays. The area is kept low thanks to the use of lumped
components even at 60GHz, and very compact mm-wave CMOS layout techniques. Intensive
research at imec has shown power efficient CMOS PAs enable further important
reductions in the power consumption of the transmitter section. The front-end
is now further being integrated into a beam forming transceiver prototype.
"We are excited that we achieved together with our partner Panasonic these excellent results," says Liesbet Van der Perre, scientific program director green radios. "These results prove that our 60GHz R&D program pioneers industry-relevant design solutions for low cost and low power 60GHz phased array radios covering the system level, IC design and antenna design. We work towards a proof-of-concept for the complete system, compliant with the applicable industrial standards. We invite other companies to join our 60GHz R&D program as research partner or they can have access to the technology for further development through licensing."
