Australia’s Information and Communications Technology Research Centre of Excellence (NICTA), has developed low cost, very high speed wireless technology integrated into a single chip. The integrated transceiver is extremely small, making it simple to embed into devices. Five (5) gigabits per second wireless transfer of audio and video files will be possible – ten (10) times the current maximum wireless transfer rate. While transfer speed has increased, cost has dropped to 10% of current costs. These are numbers which will transform home entertainment systems to wireless networks.

Consider the scenario posed by NICTA Chief Technology Officer, Embedded Systems, Dr Chris Nicol , “For example, consumers will be able to download a high definition DVD onto their personal digital assistants at a public kiosk in seconds, take it home and play it directly onto their high definition TV.” The range of the new wireless technology is 10m – a suitable distance for home entertainment systems.

In a world first, the transceiver is integrated on a single chip operating at 60GHz on the very common CMOS (complementary metal-oxide- semiconductor) process. NICTA Chief Executive Officer Dr David Skellern is quoted as saying, “Developing very high frequency radio components in a standard CMOS process and then integrating those components on a single chip has posed challenges in dealing with the inherent limitations of that process for radio circuits.”

NICTA’s three year research project involved close collaboration with semiconductor industry leaders including; IBM, Synopsys, Cadence, Anritsu, Agilent, Ansoft and SUSS MicroTec.