Low-power transceiver prototype for the wireless market

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.

The transceiver front-end prototype integrated circuit (IC) achieves an error vector management 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 LP (low-power) digital CMOS targeting low-cost volume production. The TX (transmitter) signal path, consisting of a power amplifier and a mixer, consumes 90 mW with 10.2 dBm OP1 dB. The RX (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 (ESD) robustness is more than 4 kV HBM and the compact core area of 0.7 mm² makes this transceiver front-end solution suitable for use in phased arrays.