mmWave RF Front-Ends for 5G

Low-power, integrated mm-Wave front-ends are critical to allow recent 5G standardization efforts to advance. Multiple bands have already been defined for 5G. Depending on the locale, 28, 39, 45 and/or 60 GHz are all targeted. Similar to what is already considered as industry-standard for the sub-6GHz current LTE bands, multi-band operation will reduce cost on a system level, and allow for flexible productization. Furthermore, antenna arrays are globally accepted as a means to improve the link budget, at the cost of requiring a many-path front-end. This talk will explore available options for power- and area-efficient mm-Wave front-ends that can enable multi-antenna and multi-band 5G, highlighting several recent designs with promising performance.