Australian activities in microwave links for wireless LANs

A program centered at the CSIRO Division of Radiophysics in Australia aims to develop third-generation wireless systems with capacities on the order of 100 Mb/s in a cell. The authors discuss some of the issues relating to the design of millimeter-wave antennas and transceiver MMICs (monolithic microwave integrated circuits) for operation at frequencies near the 60-GHz ISM (industrial scientific, and medical) band. Components in this wavelength range have traditionally suffered from the high cost of labor-intensive manufacture, which has acted as a major impediment to commercial utilization. Successful implementation of this wireless local area network (LAN) program will require the development of multifunctional MMICs combined with sophisticated planar antennas in low-cost, easily assembled packages.<
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