What is a millimeter wave chip
Millimeter waves refer to electromagnetic waves with frequencies between 30GHz and 300GHz, and are named for their wavelengths at the millimeter level. Compared with the frequency band below 6GHz, the millimeter wave frequency band has abundant spectrum resources and has huge advantages in carrier bandwidth, which can realize large-bandwidth transmission of 400MHz and 800MHz, and realize ultra-high-speed data through co-construction and sharing between different operators. transmission. At the same time, the millimeter-wave wavelength is short, and the required components are small in size, which facilitates the integration and miniaturization of equipment products, and meets the mainstream needs of the current terminal market.
Millimeter-wave chips are IC devices that can transmit and receive signals in the millimeter-wave frequency band. Because the millimeter wave phased array chip integrates the millimeter wave technology and the principle of the phased array, the technical difficulty is high, and it was mainly used in the military field in the past. Thanks to the rapid iteration of 5G and 6G communications, millimeter wave has been able to open up the civilian market and become a major development direction of the global communications industry. Yole expects the AiP and mmWave front-end module market to be worth $2.7 billion by 2026.
Traditional millimeter-wave monolithic integrated circuits mainly use compound semiconductor technology, such as gallium arsenide (GaAs), indium phosphide (InP), etc., which have good performance in the millimeter-wave frequency band and are the mainstream integrated circuit technology in this frequency band. On the other hand, silicon-based (CMOS, SiGe, etc.) millimeter-wave and submillimeter-wave integrated circuits have also made great progress in the past decade.
GaAs and InP mmWave chips
InP material has the characteristics of high electron mobility and large drift rate, and is the main choice for realizing stable operation of millimeter-wave circuits and terahertz electronic devices. InP-based devices have the characteristics of high frequency, low noise, high efficiency, and radiation resistance, and become the preferred material for W-band and higher frequency millimeter-wave circuits.
Compound semiconductor devices represented by GaAs have obvious advantages in high frequency, high speed, high bandwidth and microwave and millimeter wave integrated circuits. At present, compound semiconductor high-frequency devices and circuit technologies represented by gallium arsenide (GaAs) have entered a mature stage, and have been widely used in the field of high-frequency communication, especially in the field of mobile communication and optical fiber communication.
Millimeter-wave 5GPAs made with second-generation semiconductors GaAs and InP outperform products made with silicon-based CMOS and can be integrated into RF modules for mobile devices and 5G small batteries.
