Transceivers for the fourth industrial revolution. millimeter-wave frequency mixers and oscillators

The fourth industrial revolution (Industry 4.0) demands ubiquitous, low-power and high-speed communications between a vast number of devices for applications in association with the internet of things and wireless sensor networks. Traditional receiver architectures such as the super-heterodyne transmitter and receiver are widely used and have proven to be adequate for a new generation of communication technologies, but not without considerations to adapt to millimeter wave (mm-Wave) and teraherz (THz) frequency operation. On system level, next-generation communication protocols such as fifth-generation (5G) are pushing the limits of the hardware. On subsystem level, improvements are being researched to adapt traditional architectures and topologies to cope with a significant increase in operating frequency. On component level, integrated circuit designers and researchers are adapting and improving the layout, geometry and physical characteristics of active and passive components and taking advantage of physics to mitigate limitations incurred by mm-Wave and THz circuits. In this chapter, a review on system level of traditional transceivers is presented as a precursor to the challenges and limitations of mm-Wave 5G-capable transceivers. This is followed by an in-depth critical review at subsystem level of the frequency mixer. Circuit operation and performance metrics of the frequency mixer are presented and followed by a discussion on mm-Wave 5G-capable circuits presented in literature, highlighting the shortcomings and/or innovations to adapt these circuits for a new revolution in communication systems.