Toshiba develops wireless high-def TV technology

Toshiba announced wireless technology specifically designed to stream high-definition television around the home, at the 2007 Symposia on VLSI Circuits, in Kyoto, Japan.

The company is developing a wireless communications standard that operates at a rate of over 1 gigabit per second on the 60GHz band.

This ‘millimetre-waveband’, as it is known, is deployed in Japan, Europe and the US.

Frequencies around the 60GHz band are allocated to unlicensed equipment. In Japan, for example, the allocated range is 59 to 66GHz, a width of 7GHz. As a result, millimetre-wave communication is seen as a solution for short distance transmission of high-speed data.

Toshiba’s high-definition TV technology is manufactured using a low-cost CMOS process to achieve high-speed, highly-integrated wireless communications over short distances.

Toshiba is currently working to improve the integration and performance of the receiver IC (integrated circuit). It also plans to develop the high power technology required for a transmitter IC, with the aim of achieving practical application of a millimeter-wave CMOS transceiver IC as soon as possible.