Intelligent Integrated Circuits and Systems for 5G/6G Telecommunications

Millimeter-wave and Terahertz communications consist of complex analog and mixed-signal transceivers where overall system performance is often limited by the weakest performing subsystem. While analog and mixed-signal integrated circuits have significantly advanced, the future of 5G and 6G transceiver design could be accelerated by including artificial intelligence. In this combination, analog integrated circuit design and operation would harness machine learning to identify, characterize, and act upon variations and anomalies in system performance. Focusing on 5G and 6G, this paper investigates solutions for a unified intelligent integrated transceiver: a conceptual combination of a traditional analog subsystem, a supporting digital subsystem that enables artificial intelligence, and dedicated feedback circuitry or sensors that monitor performance, efficiency, or reliability. Active and passive components and propagation channels are reviewed based on their merits of introducing intelligence. Holistically and for broader applicability, the paper conceptualizes and coins the notion of an “intelligent integrated system (IIS)”, which brings forward a novel unified vision and approach toward context-aware subsystems that dynamically interact with ambient and varying operating conditions. To demonstrate viability, the paper concatenates a select set of measurement results.