-- Reduces chip footprint by over 90%, enabling more compact radars and wireless communications equipment --
Kawasaki, Japan, June 20, 2012 -- Fujitsu Laboratories today announced that it has successfully developed the world's first single-chip transceiver using gallium nitride (GaN)(*1) high electron mobility transistor (HEMT)(*2) technology that features an output of 6.3 W and that operates at a frequency of 10 GHz.
In order to simultaneously handle strong transmission signals and weak incoming signals in the same chip, it is necessary to efficiently switch between outgoing and incoming signals, while reducing the impact that outgoing signals have on incoming signals. However, until now, it has been technologically difficult to accomplish both of these objectives in tandem.
Fujitsu Laboratories has resolved this issue by developing a duplexer with low signal loss using a GaN-HEMT, and through high-output circuit integration design technology that controls signal interference between the outgoing and incoming signals. The result is a transceiver chip operating at a frequency of 10 GHz with output of 6.3 W that measures only 3.6mm x 3.3mm, representing a footprint that is less than 10% of the size of the multiple chips that have been needed until now.
With this technology, it is now possible to configure a high-output transceiver using just one chip, enabling systems such as radar equipment and wireless communications equipment to be made more compact.
Details of this technology were presented at the IEEE MTT International Microwave Symposium (IMS 2012) held in Montreal starting June 17.
[Glossary and Notes]
(*1) Gallium nitride (GaN):
GaN-based semiconductors are wide bandgap semiconductors that feature a higher breakdown-voltage (threshold) than conventional semiconductor materials, such as silicon (Si) or gallium arsenide (GaAs).
(*2) High electron mobility transistor (HEMT):
A field-effect transistor that utilizes the electron movement at the junction between two semiconductors with different bandgaps -- as electron mobility in HEMTs is faster than that of conventional semiconductors. Fujitsu led the industry with its development of HEMT technology in 1980, and HEMTs, as a core technology underpinning the network-based society, are currently used in a wide range of core technologies for IT applications, including satellite transceivers, mobile phones, GPS-based navigations systems, and broadband wireless networking systems.
For details, please visit http://www.fujitsu.com/global/news/pr/archives/month/2012/20120620-01.html
(press release)
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