Low-power 60 GHz data transceiver

Imec, in collaboration with Panasonic, has developed a prototype of a 60 GHz radio transceiver allowing it to reach data rates of 7 Gbps over short distances at very low power consumption.

The chip achieves this performance over the four channels specified by the IEEE802.11ad standard. Imec’s solution is a major step towards adopting 60 GHz technology in low-cost, battery-operated consumer products such as smartphones and tablets.

The 60 GHz band is available throughout the world and enables multiGbps wireless communication over short distances. However, to enable 60 GHz radio solutions for portable mass market products, cost, area and power consumption need to drastically decrease. Imec’s ultralow-power CMOS-based solution is an important step towards solving these challenges.

The transceiver front-end prototype IC achieves an error vector management of better than -17 dB for QAM16 modulation in the four channels, reaching data rates of 7 Gbps over short distances.

The IC is implemented in 40 nm low-power digital CMOS, targeting low-cost volume production.

The transmitter signal path, consisting of a power amplifier and a mixer, consumes 90 mW with 10.2 dBm. The receiver signal path, consisting of a low-noise amplifier and a mixer, consumes 35 mW with a noise frequency of 5.5 dB and 30 dB gain. Electrostatic discharge robustness is more than 4 kV, human body model.

The compact core area of 0.7 mm² makes this transceiver front-end solution suitable for use in phased arrays. The area is kept low thanks to the use of lumped components even at 60 GHz and compact mm-wave CMOS layout techniques.

The front end is now further being integrated into a beamforming transceiver prototype.