Architecture and Circuit Choices for 5G Millimeter-Wave Beamforming Transceivers

As 5G takes advantage of the vast amount of available spectrum in the mmWave bands, system and circuit designers face new challenges to create efficient, high-performance phased array transceivers. This article covers scaled CMOS circuit and system tradeoffs for large mmWave power consumers including the PA, LO generation, and LO distribution, in the context of mobile link requirements and beamforming system architectures. We survey a selection of published mmWave transceivers relevant to 5G communications and provide insight into tradeoffs made in practice. Finally, we discuss the application of these concepts toward E-band 71-76 GHz circuit blocks in the Intel 22FFL FinFET process with measurement results.