See also: Our roundup of the latest news from the IEEE ISSCC (International Solid State Circuits Conference), San Francisco
Fujitsu Laboratories has described the development of a RF transceiver fabbed on 90nm CMOS process technology.
Presented at the IEEE International Solid-State Circuits Conference in San Francisco this week, the 77GHz device is designed for use in radar sensors for cars.
According top Fujitsu, the 90nm CMOS process will allow the RF transceiver and baseband circuits to integrated in a single device.
The die size is 1.2x2.4mm, which the company claimed is the smallest example of a CMOS-based transceiver for the millimetre-band RF that has been reported to date.
The attraction of the millimetre band in this radar application is that it offers short wavelengths which can be used for accurate measurement of distances.
Automotive radar operating at 77GHz, a spectrum band reserved for civilian use, is already being used in automotive collision-relaxation systems.
But Fujitsu maintained that more highly integrated, cost-effective designs will be required for the technology to be more widely deployed in vehicles.