Single-chip Transceiver Operates at 60GHz

(Business News & Technology News, 25 Feb 2008)

Research institute National ICT Australia (NICTA) has developed what is claimed to be the first transceiver integrated on a single chip that operates at 60GHz on the CMOS (complementary metal-oxide semiconductor) process. Extremely small, NICTA's integrated tranceivers can be embedded into devices, enabling the truly wireless office and home of the future.

Researchers from NICTA's Gigabit Wireless Project, which is based out of NICTA's Victoria Research Laboratory, are the first in the world to have developed an integrated transceiver—a complete transmitter and receiver—on a single chip at 60GHz on CMOS. This technology breakthrough will enable the wireless transfer of audio and video data at up to 5Gbps , ten times the current maximum wireless transfer rate, at one-tenth the cost.

"Our team, which includes 10 PhD students from the University of Melbourne, has overcome some significant challenges in developing this breakthrough technology," says NICTA CEO Dr. David Skellern. "Developing very high frequency radio components in a standard CMOS process and then integrating those components on a single chip has posed challenges in dealing with the inherent limitations of that process for radio circuits. Now that NICTA researchers have successfully addressed these challenges, the ICT industry will soon have access to low-cost, low-power and high broadband chips that will be vital in enabling the digital economy of the future."

NICTA's research involved a close collaboration with leaders in the global semiconductor industry. The technology was developed using the IBM 130nm RF CMOS process.

"Our collaborators IBM, Synopsys, Cadence, Anritsu, Agilent, Ansoft and SUSS MicroTec have been critical to our success and we are grateful to have had their valuable support," says Professor Stan Skafidas, leader of the NICTA Gigabit Wireless Project. "Our innovative design methodology and access to leading design, test and measurement, and fabrication technology has allowed us to deliver this world-first success."

NICTA researchers chose to develop this technology in the 57GHz to 64GHz unlicensed frequency band as the millimetre-wave range of the spectrum makes possible high component on-chip integration as well as allowing for the integration of very small high gain arrays.

"The availability of 7GHz of spectrum results in very high data rates, up to 5Gbps to users within an indoor environment, usually within a range of 10 metres," says Professor Skafidas.

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