A 60GHz CMOS phased-array transceiver pair for multi-Gb/s wireless communications

Recent advances in silicon technology, mm-Wave integrated circuit/antenna/package design, and beam-forming techniques at 60GHz, together with the emergence of suitable wireless standards, have enabled consumer electronics products to support wireless transmission of multi-Gb/s data such as high-definition (HD) audio/video content. Further expansion into portable and mobile platforms will require lower power consumption, smaller form factor, and lower cost. This paper describes a fully integrated, low-cost 60GHz phased-array transceiver pair, implemented in 65nm standard digital CMOS and packaged with an embedded antenna array, capable of robust 10m non-line of sight (NLOS) communication. The array is configurable from 32 elements to 8 or fewer elements, making the transceiver pair suitable for both fixed, high-data-rate and portable, low-power applications. To enhance the robustness of the multi-element design, dynamic phase shifters allow the beam direction to be changed in real time to adapt to changing environments without interruption of the multi-Gb/s data stream. The transceiver pair supports the WirelessHD and draft 802.11ad (WiGig) standards at maximum data rates of 7.14Gb/s and 6.76Gb/s, respectively.