Trends and Challenges in CMOS Design for Emerging 60 GHz WPAN Applications

International audienceThe extensive growth of wireless communications industry is creating a big market opportunity. Wireless operators are currently searching for new solutions which would be implemented into the existing wireless communication networks to provide the broader bandwidth, the better quality and new value-added services. In the last decade, most commercial efforts were focused on the 1-10 GHz spectrum for voice and data applications for mobile phones and portable computers (Niknejad & Hashemi, 2008). Nowadays, the interest is growing in applications that use high rate wireless communications. Multigigabit- per-second communication requires a very large bandwidth. The Ultra-Wide Band (UWB) technology was basically used for this issue. However, this technology has some shortcomings including problems with interference and a limited data rate. Furthermore, the 3-5 GHz spectrum is relatively crowded with many interferers appearing in the WiFi bands (Niknejad & Hashemi, 2008). The use of millimeter wave frequency band is considered the most promising technology for broadband wireless. In 2001, the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) released a set of rules governing the use of spectrum between 57 and 66 GHz (Baldwin, 2007). Hence, a large bandwidth coupled with high allowable transmit power equals high possible data rates. Traditionally the implementation of 60 GHz radio technology required expensive technologies based on III-V compound semiconductors such as InP and GaAs (Smulders et al., 2007). The rapid progress of CMOS technology has enabled its application in millimeter wave applications. Currently, the transistors became small enough, consequently fast enough. As a result, the CMOS technology has become one of the most attractive choices in implementing 60 GHz radio due to its low cost and high level of integration (Doan et al., 2005). Despite the advantages of CMOS technology, the design of 60 GHz CMOS transceiver exhibits several challenges and difficulties that the designers must overcome. This chapter aims to explore the potential of the 60 GHz band in the use for emergent generation multi-gigabit wireless applications. The chapter presents a quick overview of the state-of-the-art of 60 GHz radio technology and its potentials to provide for high data rate and short range wireless communications. The chapter is organized as follows. Section 2 presents an overview about 60 GHz band. The advantages are presented to highlight the performance characteristics of this band. The opportunities of the physical layer of the IEEE 802.15.3c standard for emerging WPAN applications are discussed in section 3. The tremendous opportunities available with CMOS technology in the design of 60 GHz radio is discussed in section 4. Section 5 shows an example of 60 GHz radio system link. Some challenges and trade-offs on the design issues of circuits and systems for 60 GHz band are reported in section 6. Finally, section 7 presents the conclusion and some perspectives on future directions

Low-power CMOS front-ends for wireless personal area networks

The potential of implementing subthreshold radio frequency circuits in deep sub-micron CMOS technology was investigated for developing low-power front-ends for wireless personal area network (WPAN) applications. It was found that the higher transconductance to bias current ratio in weak inversion could be exploited in developing low-power wireless front-ends, if circuit techniques are employed to mitigate the higher device noise in subthreshold region. The first fully integrated subthreshold low noise amplifier was demonstrated in the GHz frequency range requiring only 260 μW of power consumption. Novel subthreshold variable gain stages and down-conversion mixers were developed. A 2.4 GHz receiver, consuming 540 μW of power, was implemented using a new subthreshold mixer by replacing the conventional active low noise amplifier by a series-resonant passive network that provides both input matching and voltage amplification. The first fully monolithic subthreshold CMOS receiver was also implemented with integrated subthreshold quadrature LO (Local Oscillator) chain for 2.4 GHz WPAN applications. Subthreshold operation, passive voltage amplification, and various low-power circuit techniques such as current reuse, stacking, and differential cross coupling were combined to lower the total power consumption to 2.6 mW. Extremely compact resistive feedback CMOS low noise amplifiers were presented as a cost-effective alternative to narrow band LNAs using high-Q inductors. Techniques to improve linearity and reduce power consumption were presented. The combination of high linearity, low noise figure, high broadband gain, extremely small die area and low power consumption made the proposed LNA architecture a compelling choice for many wireless applications.Ph.D.Committee Chair: Laskar, Joy; Committee Member: Chakraborty, Sudipto; Committee Member: Chang, Jae Joon; Committee Member: Divan, Deepakraj; Committee Member: Kornegay, Kevin; Committee Member: Tentzeris, Emmanoui

Multi-Gigabit Wireless Link Development

CSIRO ICT Centre is developing millimetre wave point-to-point links suitable for multi-gigabit wireless connectivity. Suitable spectrum for this purpose is allocated at the 60 GHz band and above. This paper reports a new point-to-point link that will be installed at Marsfield site to demonstrate multi-gigabit operation and performance of its key components. The link will operate at the 81-86 GHz band incorporating CSIRO designed millimetre wave MMICs and multi-gigabit modems

Advanced Trends in Wireless Communications

Physical limitations on wireless communication channels impose huge challenges to reliable communication. Bandwidth limitations, propagation loss, noise and interference make the wireless channel a narrow pipe that does not readily accommodate rapid flow of data. Thus, researches aim to design systems that are suitable to operate in such channels, in order to have high performance quality of service. Also, the mobility of the communication systems requires further investigations to reduce the complexity and the power consumption of the receiver. This book aims to provide highlights of the current research in the field of wireless communications. The subjects discussed are very valuable to communication researchers rather than researchers in the wireless related areas. The book chapters cover a wide range of wireless communication topics

Millimeter-wave Wireless LAN and its Extension toward 5G Heterogeneous Networks

Millimeter-wave (mmw) frequency bands, especially 60 GHz unlicensed band, are considered as a promising solution for gigabit short range wireless communication systems. IEEE standard 802.11ad, also known as WiGig, is standardized for the usage of the 60 GHz unlicensed band for wireless local area networks (WLANs). By using this mmw WLAN, multi-Gbps rate can be achieved to support bandwidth-intensive multimedia applications. Exhaustive search along with beamforming (BF) is usually used to overcome 60 GHz channel propagation loss and accomplish data transmissions in such mmw WLANs. Because of its short range transmission with a high susceptibility to path blocking, multiple number of mmw access points (APs) should be used to fully cover a typical target environment for future high capacity multi-Gbps WLANs. Therefore, coordination among mmw APs is highly needed to overcome packet collisions resulting from un-coordinated exhaustive search BF and to increase the total capacity of mmw WLANs. In this paper, we firstly give the current status of mmw WLANs with our developed WiGig AP prototype. Then, we highlight the great need for coordinated transmissions among mmw APs as a key enabler for future high capacity mmw WLANs. Two different types of coordinated mmw WLAN architecture are introduced. One is the distributed antenna type architecture to realize centralized coordination, while the other is an autonomous coordination with the assistance of legacy Wi-Fi signaling. Moreover, two heterogeneous network (HetNet) architectures are also introduced to efficiently extend the coordinated mmw WLANs to be used for future 5th Generation (5G) cellular networks.Comment: 18 pages, 24 figures, accepted, invited paper

Integrated Silicon Microwave and Millimeterwave Passive Components and Functions

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