RF technologies for next-generation communication and sensing applications

RF technologies for next-generation communication and sensing applications
Over the past decade, the wireless industry has experienced a significant surge in data usage. To address the increasing demand for faster data rates, lower energy consumption, and reduced latency, the industry is expanding the frequency spectrum above 6GHz to leverage the larger available bandwidths. The FR3 spectrum, ranging from 7-24GHz, has recently gained significant interest due to its potential to balance capacity and coverage effectively. 

However, higher frequencies present various challenges. While CMOS has been the technology pushing the industry to ever smaller devices, better performance and reduced cost, the unique properties of compound semiconductor devices such as GaN and InP, combining speed, efficiency and output power are finding a renewed interest. Integrating these devices with CMOS in heterogeneous platforms will be crucial to unlocking the full potential of future communication and sensing applications. 

This talk will outline imec’s vision and roadmap to enable these heterogeneous platforms paving the way for next-generation high-performance communication and sensing technologies.