4.1 A 39GHz-Band CMOS 16-Channel Phased-Array Transceiver IC with a Companion Dual-Stream IF Transceiver IC for 5G NR Base-Station Applications

Increasing demands on high-data-rate and low-latency cellular communications are accelerating the developments of millimeter-wave (mm-wave) systems for 5G NR in 28 and 39GHz bands. In order to provide the 5G communication systems worldwide, high-performance and low-cost RF chipset solutions are required. Recently, 5G mm-wave CMOS/BiCMOS RF phased-array transceivers for the 28GHz band have been reported [1]–[5]. However, there are very limited reports for the 39GHz band [6], which is one of the main frequency bands in the US, Canada, China and other countries. In this paper, we present both a 39GHz 16-channel RF phased-array transceiver IC in 28nm CMOS and a dual-stream IF transceiver IC in 65nm CMOS. These chipsets can be scaled up to >500 RF phased-array elements and support dual-stream (MIMO) in 5G NR base-station applications.