NICTA develops a “world first in semiconductor technology” for the wireless home and office of the future
(Technology News, 10 Mar 2008 )
The world's first transceiver integrated on a single chip that operates at 60GHz on the CMOS (complementary metal-oxide-semiconductor) process, the most common semiconductor technology, was announced today by NICTA, Australia's Information and Communications Technology (ICT) Research Centre of Excellence.
The developmentwill enable the truly wireless office and home of the future. As the integrated transceiver developed by NICTA is extremely small, it can be embedded into devices. The breakthrough will mean the networking of office and home equipment - without wires - will finally become a reality.
Researchers from NICTA's Gigabit Wireless Project, which is based out of NICTA's Victoria Research Laboratory, are the first in the world to have developed an integrated transceiver, a complete transmitter and receiver, on a single chip at 60GHz on CMOS.
This technology breakthrough will enable the wireless transfer of audio and video data at up to 5 gigabits per second, ten times the current maximum wireless transfer rate, at one-tenth the cost.
NICTA's research involved a close collaboration with leaders in the global semiconductor industry. The technology was developed using the IBM 130nm RF CMOS process.
