Toshiba Unveils Gigabit WLAN
Millimeter-wave communication is a highly anticipated solution that offers high-speed wireless communication in the 60GHz band, a frequency over ten times higher than that of wireless LAN. The new fabrication process uses a low-cost CMOS process to achieve high-speed, highly-integrated wireless communications over short distances, and will support development of consumer applications. According to Physorg, Toshiba unveiled the technology on June 15 at the 2007 Symposia on VLSI Circuits, in Kyoto.
While communication distances are limited to a few meters due to the nature of the wave, the wide bandwidth of the signal allows data transfers at a rate of more than 1 gigabit a second. In Japan, the U.S. and Europe, frequencies around the 60GHz band are allocated to unlicensed equipment. As a result, millimeter-wave communication is increasingly seen as a solution for short distance transmission of high-speed data.