Technology for emerging commercial applications at millimeter-wave frequencies

The 60 GHz band has emerged as an international spectrum opportunity for short-range wireless communication networks. In this paper, technology trends that can impact the commercial deployment of systems utilizing millimeterwave frequency bands is discussed. Millimeter-wave frequency bands have historically been costly to utilize and traditionally used almost exclusively for government and non-consumer products. Recent and ongoing advances in semiconductor and low cost high frequency packaging can be leveraged for low cost solutions that enable widespread deployment. In order to demonstrate the potential throughput of a broadband wireless system utilizing millimeter-wave spectrum, Motorola Labs has demonstrated multi-gigabit data transmission and reception over significant distances.