A 71-to-86-GHz 16-Element by 16-Beam Multi-User Beamforming Integrated Receiver Sub-Array for Massive MIMO

This article presents a 71-86 GHz 16-element array receiver application-specified integrated circuit (ASIC) for Massive multiple-input-multiple-output (MIMO) wireless uplink, featuring a multiple-output analog beamformer (BF) supporting up to 16 spatially multiplexed users at the same time. The ASIC includes 16 direct-conversion mixer-first RX front-ends, local oscillator (LO) generation and distribution, and a 16 x 16 fully connected baseband analog beamformer, which derives each user stream as a linear combination of all the 16 antennas. The 16 mm(2) 28 nm CMOS ASIC is packaged on an organic interposer including a linear patch antenna array. Over-the-air measurements demonstrate up to 2 Gb/s single-user data-rate, and four simultaneous links at 500 Mb/s each, with number of users and data rate only limited by setup constraints. Circuits are optimized for low power consumption in order to enable scaling to massive arrays, and consumes 1.7 W total power, for a power figure of 7 mW/antenna/user.

Automated summary

This article introduces a 71-86 GHz 16-element array receiver ASIC designed for Massive MIMO wireless uplink, with support for up to 16 spatially multiplexed users simultaneously. The ASIC is optimized for low power consumption, achieving high data rates and multiple user connections.