No matter how much circuitry engineers are able to cram into a semiconductor device, they can’t make it work faster than the wires between such devices will allow. That’s why Sony’s recent development of a wireless alternative is so exciting. Today some products employ as many as 1000 pins to connect devices, and those pins take up a lot of space. More than anything, they set the limit on how large an electronic device can be.

Photo: John Boyd

Earlier this year, Sony Corp. unveiled the first millimeter-wave wireless technology that can serve as a short-range link among devices. A 40-nanometer complementary-metal-oxide-semiconductor (CMOS) prototype system achieved transfer speeds of 11 gigabits per second operating at 56 gigahertz over a distance of 14 millimeters. Adding a secondary antenna can increase the range to 50 mm. Sony described the technology in February at the International Solid-State Circuits Conference, held in San Francisco.

Using wireless to shift the data around instead of wires and pins, "will let us use simpler substrates and simpler IC packaging and help us produce smaller ICs," says Yoshiyuki Akiyama, senior manager in Sony’s Core Device Development Group. He adds that wireless also enhances the reliability of movable and detachable parts in certain products, such as boards that have to be removed for maintenance or upgrading.

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