20.2 A 16TX/16RX 60GHz 802.11ad chipset with single coaxial interface and polarization diversity

Abstract

The IEEE 802.11ad standard supports PHY rates up to 6.7Gb/s on four 2GHz-wide channels from 57 to 64GHz. A 60GHz system offers higher throughput than existing 802.11ac solutions but has several challenges for high-volume production including: integration in the host platform, automated test, and high link loss due to blockage and polarization mismatch. This paper presents a full-featured 802.11ad chipset capable of SC and OFDM modulation using a 16TX-16RX beamforming RF front-end, complete with an antenna array that supports polarization diversity. To aid low-cost integration in PC platforms, a single coaxial cable interface is used between chips. The chipset includes MAC, PHY, and RF with a PCIe <sup xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">TM</sup> interface and is capable of maintaining a link of 4.6Gb/s (PHY rate) at 10m.