Microwave and Millimeter Wave Integrated Circuits MTT-6: The RF Core Chips of the 21st Century ■ Ruediger Quay and Dietmar Kissinger
Ruediger Quay (
[email protected]) is with the Fraunhofer Institute of Applied Solid-State Physics, and Dietmar Kissinger (
[email protected]. uni-erlangen.de) is with the Institute for Electronics Engineering, University of Erlangen-Nuremberg. Digital Object Identifier 10.1109/MMM.2012.2209031 Date of publication: 13 September 2012
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up temporary connections to restore a network after a natural disaster or other disruption that occurred, such as in Japan 18 months ago. This issue demonstrates that technology from that very same country can provide sufficient bandwidth over the air. Nippon Telegraph and Telephone Corporation (NTT) laboratories are developing a 10-Gb/s wireless link system using the 120-GHz band to meet the demands for wireless transmission of 10GbE, 10G-EPON, and uncompressed highdefinition videos over a distance of several kilometers. The 120-GHz band is promising because it provides sufficient unregulated bandwidth and low atmospheric absorption (about 1 dB/km). A which have enabled, to this point, the key technology of this link is an RF device widespread use of automotive radar at that can transmit a high-power millimeter24 GHz and 77 GHz. Some of our readers wave signal modulated at 10 Gb/s and receive the signal with may have come to enjoy this feature in a MTT-6 focuses on high sensitivity. NTT and others have develrental car recently. New the many forms oped MMICs to make applications at simi10-Gb/s transmitters lar frequencies, such of integrated and receivers in 120as high-speed wireless circuits from GHz band and to extend data-rate communicamultichip the wireless link’s transtion, can handle optical communications modules (MCMs) mission distance suitable for the application. standards and are useto higher levels MTT-6 focuses on ful at the last-mile of of integration the many forms of wireless access. They can also be used to set and applications. i nteg rated c i rc u it s © COMSTOCK
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he focus section of this issue of IEEE Microwave Magazine is specifically dedicated to the activities of the IEEE Microwave Theory and Techniques Society (MTT-S) Technical Committee Microwave and Millimeter Wave Integrated Circuits MTT-6, specifically, radio-frequency (RF) and microwave integrated circuits (MICs). MTT-6 covers integrated circuits and their associated technologies across the spectrum, from RF (tens of MHz) through submillimeter waves, to frequencies up to breathtaking 670 GHz, using active integrated RF-circuits. This focus section is organized to give an overview of the ongoing revolutions and evolutions in this area, and we hope that it will help the interested reader to enjoy the same fun that we have with our activities. Classic RF-monolithic MICs (MMICs) made commercially from gallium arsenide (GaAs) and InP since the beginning of the 1990s are still the workhorses,
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from multichip modules (MCMs) to Those elements are embedded in an higher levels of integration and ap- RF multilayer printed circuit board. plications. The advancements of The QPASS system is capable of proSiGe bipolar-based MMICs for safety ducing three-dimensional images of have enabled advanced microwave 30 dB dynamic range and 2 mm of latimaging with digit a l b e a m for m- eral resolution, producing data rates i n g. The Quick Person nel Safe as high as 1.15 Tb/s collected by the Screening (QPASS) system, described system. The reconstruction hardware in this issue was developed on the needs to perform 10.6 teraoperations basis of multistatic digital-beam- per second in order to deliver full forming technology to target the ap- image reconstruction in approximateplication of close-range personnel ly two seconds. Again, we as readers screening at airports and critical infra- are in the driver’s seat, and we do not structure buildings. Many of our read- want to wait at the checkpoints. Switching gears to the high-RF and ers might have experienced similar systems themselves at some airports, microwave power end, gallium nitride e.g., in Amsterdam in The Netherlands (GaN) is playing a role to achieve very high-current density combined with at lower frequencies. The imaging array described here high-voltage operation, leading to unoperates from 70 to 80 GHz with a precedented RF-power densities of >5 W/mm in the apf re q u e n c y - s t e p p e d continuous-wave techThe reconstruction plication at 10 GHz and beyond. Further, it nique. Two arrays of hardware needs still holds the promise square aperture are to perform 10.6 to improve the power stacked vertically, where capability of many microeach includes astonishTeraoperations wave circuits. Applicaing 1,536 transmit (Tx) per second in tions that presently use channels and 1,536 reorder to deliver GaAs devices are being ceive (Rx) channels, ad dressed, and new making a total of 6,144 full image applications, which are RF channels. Highreconstruction only covered by tubes integration densities in approximately so far, are also being inwith moderate costs vestigated. are achievable now, as two seconds. As GaN has emerged demonstrated by the consortium around Rohde & Schwarz from universities and corporate labs into the mainstream, today’s MMIC from Germany. Regarding the RF-technology choice, designers have validated the promise for the 65 nm and 40 nm CMOS tech- of this exciting technology. GaN-based nology, the cost of the production mask designs have demonstrated state-ofset is found to be excessively high, the-art performance in a wide range which makes CMOS not yet a feasible of applications and MMIC architecoption. From today’s point of view, a tures. GaN has shown that it is ideally pure bipolar process, which is already suited for high PAs from L- (1–2 GHz) in use for mass market 77-GHz au- and S-band (3 GHz) through Ka-band tomotive radar applicat ions, gives (26-40 GHz), with potential for higher the best cost ef fe c t ive ness. Mask frequencies as the technology progressset cost is a fraction (less than one- es. Breakthrough results for power and tenth) of a 40-nm CMOS mask set, pro- bandwidth are demonstrated in this duction cost is clearly lower than for issue from Triquint for extremely widethe III-V technologies. We as readers band amplifiers, exhibiting far higher are seeing a clear development here, power levels and efficiency than ever which was predicted many times. The achieved in GaAs for the same bandanalog front ends are built of custom- width. Excellent RF switch performance made four-channel RX and Tx chips, has also been realized with the ability which are connected to aperture(continued on page 141) coupled patch-excited horn antennas.
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Microwave Surfing (continued from page 22) with high efficiency over a distance of the order of a meter (rather than a few millimeters as in typical inductive coupling setups). The concept of resonant nonradiative coupling has been explored before, but the team of Bonde and Smith [1], [6] is the first one to exploit it for powering VADs wirelessly. In their proposed implementation, one small coil (receiver) can be implanted in the body while the larger transmitting coil can be worn conveniently in a vest or even attached to a bed or mounted
on the ceiling. While the laboratory tests of the FREE-D system attest to its great potential, actual clinical use must await animal studies and clinical trials. If all goes well, in a few years, patients with heart failure can look forward to having a wireless lifeline.
References [1] B. H. Waters, A. P. Sample, P. Bonde, and J. R. Smith, “Powering a ventricular assist device (VAD) with the free-range resonant energy delivery (FREE-D) system,” Proc. IEEE, vol. 100, no. 1, pp. 138–149, Jan. 2012.
[2] (2012, May 29). A wireless heart. The Economist [Online]. Available: http://www.economist. com/node/21017837 [3] R. Bansal, “AP-S turnstile: Cutting the cord,” IEEE Antennas Propagat. Mag., vol. 49, no. 1, p. 150, Feb. 2007. [4] R. Bansal, “Microwave surfing: Goodbye to batteries,” IEEE Microwave Mag., vol. 8, no. 4, pp. 24–26, Aug. 2007. [5] R. Bansal, “Microwave surfing: The future of wireless charging,” IEEE Microwave Mag., vol. 10, no. 5, p. 30, Aug. 2009. [6] (2012, May 29). The website for Prof. J. Smith’s Sensor Systems Laboratory at the University of Washington [Online]. Available: http://sensor. cs.washington.edu/FREED.html
From the Guest Editors’ Desk (continued from page 25) to switch power levels far in excess of what is available in other semiconductor technologies. The challenge is to create more system insertion now and to open even more applications with this outstanding technological approach.
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With the astonishing progress, it is fair to say that these new chip sets are the Ferrari engines that power the system advancements in the coming decade and will, as always, make their way into our daily lives.
We would like to thank the authors for their timely and highly efficient cooperation and also the MTT-6 committee for proposals, reviews, and a lot of fun from working on the RF core chips of the 21st Century.
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