Technology turns low-cost CMOS into powerful ICs for consumer apps

Technology turns low-cost CMOS into powerful ICs for consumer apps

Toshiba recently announced a new fabrication process that uses low-cost CMOS to achieve high-speed (60-GHz), highly integrated wireless communications over short distances. The technology hopes to produce powerful ICs that will support devices for emerging millimeter communication applications. The confluence of broadband digital content and wireless home networks is prompting increasing interest in high-speed wireless transfers of high-definition video between digital equipment in the home.

Multimeter-wave communication chips have previously been fabricated with GaAs, which is more expensive and bulky than CMOS. With advances in process technology, CMOS semiconductor technology is now approaching a level where it is applicable to millimeter waveband. The company has engineered a 60-GHz CMOS receiver chip for the millimeter-wave band which integrates an on-chip antenna, LNA, a mixer with a preamplifier, and a PLL synthesizer in a die that is only 1.1 x 2.4 mm without pad area and uses a 90-nm CMOS process. By using a high-speed 60-GHz band10 times higher than that of wireless LANit will allow data transfers at a rate of more than 1 Gbit/s.

Next, the company plans to develop a high-power amplifier for a transmitter IC. Then the company needs to find a practical application for a millimeter-wave CMOS transceiver IC. For more information, visit http://www.toshiba.com.jp.

Christina Nickolas