11
Mm-Wave Broadband Wireless Systems and Enabling MMIC Technologies
11.1 Introduction
Over the past decade there has been an increasing interest in the development of millimeter (mm)-wave broadband wireless systems and enabling technologies [1]. Consistent effort in this direction has been largely motivated by the foreseen opportunities for V-band technology in the broader consumer electronics market. The benefits of utilizing the spectrum in the range 57–66 GHz are numerous. The available bandwidth within this range of frequencies is capable of very large data throughput transmission, currently projected in excess of 5 Gb/s [2]. Given the rapid increase in bandwidth demand and coupled with the saturation of available bandwidth at lower frequencies, mm-wave systems are emerging as the natural choice for emerging high-throughput communication applications. Significantly, propagation of signals at 60 GHz is inherently limited to a short range due to an oxygen absorption peak, which introduces typical free-space propagation losses of 10–15 dB/km [1]. Consequently, near co-sited systems operating on the same frequency can be inherently noninterfering and frequency reuse becomes naturally available across distances of a few tens of meters. Driven by these opportunities and forecasted applications, ...
