Toshiba develops 60GHz receiver technology, could open way for wireless HD
Toshiba has announced that it's developing a new technology that could open the way to manufacturing powerful ICs for the millimetre-waveband. It offers high-speed wireless communication, at a rate of over 1 gigabit per second, on the 60GHz band.
In Japan, the US and Europe, frequencies around the 60GHz band are allocated to unlicensed equipment. In the case of Japan, the allocated range is 59 to 66GHz, a width of 7GHz. As a result, millimetre-wave communication is increasingly seen as a solution for short distance transmission of high-speed data. 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. Toshiba’s new technology is expected to be applied to such applications, and to support its realisation.
Toshiba has engineered a 60GHz CMOS receiver chip for the millimeter-wave band. It integrates an on-chip antenna, LNA, a mixer with a preamplifier and a phase-locked loop (PLL) synthesiser in a die that is only 1.1mm x 2.4mm.
Though the technology can be used only over distances of a few metres, it could well be used for sending large amounts of data, such as that required for high definition content, between AV home cinema equipment.
This technology is very much in the developmental stage at present.
