This article presents a 39 GHz transceiver front-end chipset for 5G multi-input multi-output (MIMO) applications. Each chip includes two variable-gain frequency-conversion channels and can support two simultaneous independent beams, and the chips also integrate a local-oscillator chain and digital module for multi-chip extension and gain-state control. To improve the radio-frequency performance, several circuit-level improvement techniques are proposed for the key building blocks in the front-end system. Furthermore, an advanced low-temperature co-fired ceramic process is developed to package the 39 GHz dual-channel transceiver chipset, and it achieves low packaging loss and high isolation between the two transmitting (TX)/receiving (RX) channels. Both the chip-level and system-in-package (SIP)-level measurements are conducted to demonstrate the performance of the transceiver chipset. The measurement characteristics show that the TX SIP provides 11 dB maximum gain and 10 dBm saturated output power, while the RX SIP achieves 52 dB maximum gain, 5.4 dB noise figure, and 7.2 dBm output 1 dB compression point. Single-channel communication link testing of the transceiver exhibits an error vector magnitude (EVM) of 3.72% and a spectral efficiency of 3.25 bit·s⁻¹·Hz⁻¹ for 64-quadrature amplitude modulation (QAM) modulation and an EVM of 3.76% and spectral efficiency of 3.90 bit·s⁻¹·Hz⁻¹ for 256-QAM modulation over a 1 m distance. Based on the chipset, a 39 GHz multi-beam prototype is also developed to perform the MIMO operation for 5G millimetre wave applications. The over-the-air communication link for one- and two-stream transmission indicates that the multi-beam prototype can cover a 5–150 m distance with comparable throughput.

本文介绍了用于 5G 多输入多输出 (MIMO) 应用的 39 GHz 收发器前端芯片组。每个芯片包括两个可变增益变频通道，可以支持两个同时独立的波束，芯片还集成了本振链和数字模块，用于多芯片扩展和增益状态控制。为了提高射频性能，针对前端系统中的关键构建块提出了几种电路级改进技术。此外，开发了先进的低温共烧陶瓷工艺来封装39 GHz双通道收发器芯片组，实现了低封装损耗和两个发射（TX）/接收（RX）通道之间的高隔离度。进行芯片级和系统级封装 (SIP) 级测量以展示收发器芯片组的性能。测量特性表明，TX SIP 提供 11 dB 最大增益和 10 dBm 饱和输出功率，而 RX SIP 实现 52 dB 最大增益、5.4 dB 噪声系数和 7.2 dBm 输出 1 dB 压缩点。收发器的单通道通信链路测试显示误差矢量幅度 (EVM) 为 3.72%，频谱效率为 3.25 bit·s⁻¹ ·Hz ^-1对于 64 正交幅度调制 (QAM) 调制和 3.76% 的 EVM 以及 3.90 比特·s 的频谱效率^-1 ·Hz ^-1对于 1 m 距离上的 256-QAM 调制。基于芯片组，还开发了 39 GHz 多波束原型，以执行 5G 毫米波应用的 MIMO 操作。用于单流和双流传输的空中通信链路表明，多波束原型可以覆盖 5-150 米的距离，吞吐量相当。