IMEC matures reconfigurable transceiver technology and prepares for digital flexible radio

ISSCC2009, SAN FRANCISCO – February 9, 2009 – With the launch of its
single-chip reconfigurable receiver achieving industry state-of-the-art
performance, IMEC matures its flexible radios in deep sub-micron digital
CMOS to ease the implementation of both the analog and the digital
functionality into the same system-on-chip (SoC). The architecture
optimally benefits from the speed advantages of chip technology scaling
resulting in low cost, low power radios. In parallel, IMEC is working on
digitally inspired flexible radios ultimately targeting a true software
radio.

At today’s International Solid State Circuit Conference, IMEC presented its
45nm single-chip reconfigurable receiver with power, performance and area
competitive to state-of-the-art single mode radios. The receiver is fully
software configurable across all channels in the frequency bands between
100MHz and 5GHz. The IC uses only 1.1V supply voltage and has an active
area of 2mm (squared). Depending on its configuration it consumes from 54
to 105mA. The radio can be configured for multiple state-of-the-art and
future wireless protocols such as GSM, GPS, EDGE, WCDMA, HSDPA, CDMA2K,
EVDO, LTE, 802.11ab/gn, DVB-H and 802.16d/e. Its high level of integration
and ultra-low power consumption make it suitable for use in a wide range of
both single and multi-mode mobile devices – handsets, smart phones, PDAs,
PC cards, USB dongles, etc.

The complete transceiver will be taped out in April 2009. Industry can get
a head start for their mobile devices of 2011, by joining IMEC’s
reconfigurable radio research program in which they get access to the
technology and build up early knowhow on the transceiver.

At ISSCC2009, IMEC also presented a new architecture for a multi-mode
multi-rate cascade sigma-delta low-pass analog to digital convertor (ADC)
in 90nm digital CMOS. The ADC achieves a dynamic range of 85 to 66dB for
GSM, Bluetooth and UMTS with power consumption of only 3.4 to 6.8mW showing
the intrinsic power efficiency of the architecture without specific circuit
optimization.

“This achievement indicates the move to more digitally-inspired flexible
radios,” said Rudy Lauwereins, vice-president of smart systems technology
office at IMEC. “Step by step we are removing scaling unfriendly analog
building blocks and replacing them by digital implementations making the
radio even more flexible.”

Going one step further IMEC also reports a prototype RF band-pass
sigma-delta ADC with a bandwidth of 60MHZ at 2.4GHz. With this
architecture, ultimately, the analog to digital conversion would be placed
at the antenna shifting all signal conditioning to the digital domain.
“Currently the performance is not yet sufficient but we have a clear
roadmap towards the dream of digital software radios,” said Rudy
Lauwereins.

URL for Release and Photo
This news release and photo with caption showing IMEC’s fully
reconfigurable flexible receiver can be downloaded at:
http://www2.imec.be/imec_com/imec_matures_reconfigurable_transceiver_techno
logy_and_prepares_for_digital_flexible_radio.php?year=2009&month=02

About IMEC
IMEC is a world-leading independent research center in nanoelectronics and
nanotechnology. IMEC vzw is headquartered in Leuven, Belgium, has a sister
company in the Netherlands, IMEC-NL, offices in the US, China and Taiwan,
and representatives in Japan. Its staff of more than 1750 people includes
about 600 industrial residents and guest researchers. In 2008, its revenue
(P&L) was estimated to EUR 264 million.

IMEC’s More Moore research aims at semiconductor scaling towards sub-32nm
nodes. With its More than Moore research, IMEC looks into technologies for
nomadic embedded systems, wireless autonomous transducer solutions,
biomedical electronics, photovoltaics, organic electronics and GaN power
electronics.
IMEC’s research bridges the gap between fundamental research at
universities and technology development in industry. Its unique balance of
processing and system know-how, intellectual property portfolio,
state-of-the-art infrastructure and its strong network worldwide position
IMEC as a key partner for shaping technologies for future systems.
Further information on IMEC can be found at www.imec.be.