This article is organized into three major topics. In the first section, it discusses some of the leading use cases for millimeter wave communications and set the stage for the analysis that follows. In the second and third sections, it delves into the architectures and technology for millimeter wave base station systems. In the second section, it discusses technology for the beamformers and how the required transmit power influences the choice of technology for the system front end. While the beamformer receives much of the spotlight in the press, there is an equally important section of the radio that performs the conversion from bits to millimeter wave frequency.
The article presents an example signal chain for this section of the system and suggest some leading-edge components from Analog Devices for radio designers consideration.
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