60 GHz Transceiver (via Imec & Panasonic)

The Innovation of 60GHz Wigig internet could replace our familiar Wi-Fi signal in the near future. Belgian research lab Imec hopes to implant 60GHz radio transceiver chips inside of mobile devices for incredibly fast data transactions. This could be an important technology as the UK will soon auction off the 4G spectrum. Delays have taken the auction from December 2011 to May 2012. Hopefully they will get this sorted soon, as the UK public wishes to use some sort of 4G service at least by 2013.

The company Imec is collaborating with Panasonic to take on some of the biggest challenges to the technology, mainly cost and power usage. The advantages to the technology are clear: 7Gbps data rates are realistic and the high propagation attenuation of high-frequency communication proves to be very useful in short-range applications (around 30 ft) for its immunity to interference, high security characteristics and frequency reuse.

In making this 60GHz radio, Imec is implementing a low power 40nm digital complementary metal oxide semiconductor (CMOS). CMOS enable smaller transistors with higher switching speeds. CMOS technology also allows for combining the analog radio with the digital radio baseband on a single radio transceiver chip.

The low power transceiver’s transmit signal consists of a power amplifier and a mixer and uses 90mW. The path for receiving signals is made up of a low noise amplifier and a mixer, which consume 35 mW and have a noise frequency of 5.5 dB and give 30dB gain. This level of power consumption meets with the IEEE802.11ad standard.

Imec is pushing mass production of some of the transceivers components to drive down the cost. However, having such low-cost, low-power, small-sized modules also require integrating CMOS chips into antennas as well.

Applications like Gbps downloads, uncompressed video distribution and faster wireless connections between laptops and printers will be tested and could soon be found in devices for consumers. Although this may be 4G in the UK, sounds like it will be labeled 5G for everyone else.

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Soldier sets up UAV communication system in Afganistan

Big bandwidth, 4G, wireless networks are popping up everywhere these days; it is almost hard to find an area that does not have a fast connection. That is not the case for our men and women fighting on foreign battlefields like Afghanistan. Wireless networks out there are hard to come by even at 3G speeds. Wars are won with information. Having soldiers connected is paramount.

Slow data speeds will soon be a problem of the past though as DARPA’s (Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency) STO (Strategic Technology Office) looks to bring 4G level connections to even the most remote of battlefields. To do this, DARPA plans on using their Mobile Hotspots program that uses a millimeter-wave communications platform (wavelength of 10 to 1mm.) This system will be implemented in air vehicles as well as ground and will be able to give the war-fighter the speed of a typical 4G fixed tower, which is about a gigabit per second, without the infrastructure (kind of hard to hide a cell-tower in a war zone). The Mobile Hotspots program will also utilize DARPA’s ‘Fixed Wireless at a Distance program' which is essentially a high-performance cell tower that’s placed in a protected area like a forward operating base (FOB). This work is being looked at to boost UAV transmission power in hopes to extend the range.

DARPA Program manager Dick Ridgway explained how they will get up and running, "Mobile Hotspots will require the development of steerable antennas, efficient millimeter-wave power amplifiers, and dynamic networking to establish and maintain the mobile data backhaul network. We anticipate using commercial radio protocols, such as WiFi, WiMax or LTE [Long Term Evolution], as a cost-effective demonstration of the high-capacity backbone.  However, the millimeter-wave mobile backbone developed during this program will be compatible with other military radios and protocols.”

"The principle of strategy is having one thing, to know ten thousand things." - Miyamoto Musashi (Book of Five Rings)

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