WiGig FlExible TraNsceiver ADvanced SYstem – WENDY

The 60GHz band has been explored for high data rate wireless communications in the last decade and the standard IEEE-802.15.3c was created in order to normalize this band for High data rate short range communications. At the end of the last decade, we have seen specific consortiums such as WiHD driven by SiBeam and WiGig driven by Intel created in order to define specific use cases and to prepare this new generation of High Data Rate wireless communication era.
WiHD was mainly focused on the video streaming applications and didn’t give enough freedom for other use cases. Even if it is, the only one which already has offers yet commercial products for High definition Definition video uncompressed HDMI cable replacement, it seems that it would not win at the end of the day, due to the limitation described above.
WiGig was created to cover video streaming and high data rate file transfer, for plugged and hand held devices. In the same time, the consortium has made an alliance with WiFi Alliance in order to integrate the 60GHz communication in the WiFi ecosystem, which clearly gives to this standard a big advantage over the others.
The first generation of hand held WiGig chipset will be considered as a standalone add- on into the phone and will not share any function with the WiFi chipset , this generation is under Research and Development in the industry, in order to meet the market introduction time forecasted within the three next years. However, Iit will not meet the lowest power consumption and the programmability required for future applications.
The next generation of chipset must be thought as a fully integrated function in the WiFi ecosystem, which means that the MAC, the Digital BaseBand (DBB), and the Radio Frequency Front-End (RFFE) will share the WiFi and WiGig bands and modulation schemes within same circuits, with high programmability behavior, even if this would not be a SOC, this generation has to be invented and would be on the market in range of 5 to 7 years.
What we propose to make in this project is to prepare the second generation which will introduce, inside a unique programmable RFFE, innovative architectures for handling both the WiFi and WiGig standards, prepare for future evolution of these standards and enable interesting use cases. In summary, this project aims at reducing the global power consumption through an innovative interface approach, combining digital and analog processing in an optimal way. Furthermore, reuse of the architecture and circuits for both the 60GHz and the 2.5 / 5 GHz bands is emphasized to minimize the bill of materials.
In order to build such devices and to take some “advantage” from the Moore’s law, we have propose to investigate a new “digital”digital- like IF-RF signal processing stage which will deliver/receive directly the 2.5GHz - 5GHz WiFi signal to/from the PA/LNA and which will be the IF signal generator/receiver for the 60GHz WiGig signal.
This signal processor will integrate a 2.5GHz to 60GHz programmable frequency generator/synthesizer, which will deliver the right frequency for the right standard.
All of these blocks will be highly re-configurable, and finally, in order to facilitate the test, we will introduce mmW mixer stage in order to deliver 60GHz signal, when WiGig standard will be selected on the chip.