Nikkei Electronics Asia -- February 2010
Feature
Hitachi, Panasonic and Toshiba Developing Millimeter-Wave Communication Chips

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Feb 1, 2010 00:01 Hiroki Yomogita

"We want to escape having to rely on specific semiconductor manufacturers as soon as possible," says an engineer at Hitachi, Ltd.

Japanese manufacturers are getting serious about developing their own millimeter-wave communication ICs. Three companies - Hitachi, Panasonic Corp., and Toshiba Corp - have disclosed they are independently developing 60GHz-waveband radio frequency (RF) transceiver ICs. All three hope to make ultra-small transceiver modules with integrated antennas, for use in digital home electronics (Fig. 1). The first products could appear as early as the second half of 2010.

Fig. 1 Manufacturers Developing Proprietary Chips
Hitachi's millimeter-wave transceiver module (a) integrates LNA, mixer, VCO, etc. Mockup of Toshiba's single-chip RF transceiver (b). Panasonic's millimeter-wave transceiver module mockup (c).

Radio communication in the 60GHz band can utilize a frequency bandwidth of about 7GHz, making it possible to assure high-speed throughput on the order of Gbit/s (Table 1). The IEEE802 Committee has already released the IEEE802.15.3c standard for high-speed millimeter-wave communication in consumer applications, and home electronics manufacturers around a core group including Sony Corp. and Panasonic has drawn up the WirelessHD standard.

Table 1 Comparison of Energy per Unit Transmitted Information
(by Nikkei Electronics, based on material courtesy of Hitachi)

Until now, however, Japanese manufacturers have not been actively developing millimeter-wave communication ICs. Market potential was largely unknown, so that the industry, as one equipment engineer puts it, "never made any, even after a standard was released."

The wind shifted with the release of audio-visual (AV) equipment such as TVs actually utilizing millimeter waves. Equipment complying with the WirelessHD standard utilizing chipsets from SiBEAM, Inc. was released by Panasonic, LG Electronics, Inc., and others. Expectations are rising for market growth, supported also by an increasing number of plans to equip mobile equipment with Gbit/s-class wireless communication functionality.