Microwave Journal
www.microwavejournal.com/articles/19098-highly-integrated-60-ghz-radio-transceiver-chipset

Highly Integrated 60 GHz Radio Transceiver Chipset

February 14, 2013

Highly Integrated 60 GHz Radio Transceiver Chipset

The demand for high capacity data continues to grow at accelerating rates fueled by high data rate consumer applications, feature rich smartphones, video applications and the overall growth and use of the Internet. The 7 GHz of unlicensed spectrum available from 57 to 64 GHz offers wide bandwidth along with signal propagation properties that are ideal for short range multi-Gbps data communications. However, providing a complete radio at millimeter-wave frequencies can be a significant challenge requiring advanced materials and sophisticated design techniques.

Hittite has addressed many of the challenges by offering a highly integrated 60 GHz radio transceiver chipset, the HMC6000 and HMC6001, along with QFN packaged versions complete with integrated antennas, the HMC6000LP711E and HMC6001LP711E. The HMC6000 and HMC6001 contain everything required to convert between 60 GHz and analog IQ baseband with no external components beyond a lower frequency crystal oscillator reference. The HMC6000LP711E and HMC6001LP711E integrate these chips with a 7.5 dBi gain antenna in a low cost 7 × 11 mm plastic QFN pack-age to provide a complete air-interface solution. The HMC6000LP711E and HMC6001LP711E support RF bandwidths up to 1.8 GHz, and feature a transmit EIRP up to 23.5 dBm and receiver noise figure of less than 7 dB.

Now Hittite is offering an evaluation kit, the EKIT01-HMC6450, for these antenna-in-package (AiP) components. The EKIT01-HMC6450 AiP transceiver evaluation kit, with two pairs of HMC6000LP711E and HMC6001LP711E AiP solutions, comes with software to control all of the functionality of the chips through an easy-to-use graphical user interface.  This interface has both high level commands such as channel selection, gain and attenuation settings and filter control, as well as access to read and write from every low level register within the chips. The kit contains all of the supporting power supplies, reference clock and USB interface along with phase matched MCX to SMA connectors for the baseband differential interfaces to a customer’s modem solution or test equipment. With the kit, a user can quickly set up a millimeter-wave link of up to 5 m at 60 GHz with universal analog I and Q interfaces for the rapid development of multi-Gbps data solutions.

Hittite Microwave,
Chelmsford, MA,
sales@hittite.com
www.hittite.com