UL offers testing to 60 Gigahertz (GHz) wireless technologies and WiGIG specification

In the quest to deliver the bandwidth required for current and future digital multimedia applications, 60 Gigahertz (GHz) wireless technologies represent the new state of the art and will offer data transmission rates up to 7 GBPS. These systems operate in various unlicensed frequency bands over the range of 57 to 66 GHz, with the exact extent varying by country and region, which are collectively known as the 60 GHz unlicensed band. Operation in unlicensed bands is well-suited for consumer devices, such as the ubiquitous Wi-Fi and Bluetooth enabled equipment.

The first consumer products to popularize the use of the 60 GHz band were WirelessHD devices, developed to send uncompressed High Definition Audio/Video over the air to provide a wireless equivalent of HDMI cables. UL CCS, a UL company in Fremont CA., USA, which specializes in electromagnetic compliance (EMC) and wireless testing , has been involved since the early days of the development of the WirelessHD specification, and is the only Authorized Test Center for the WirelessHD Compliance Test Specification (CTS).

UL has provided one-stop shopping which includes both WirelessHD CTS tests and Regulatory tests to FCC, EU, Japan and other government agency requirements, to a wide variety of 60 GHz technology manufacturers.

UL has since become actively involved with sharing our 60 GHz experience to further the development of the WiGIG specification. WiGIG is a unified specification to enable interoperability among consumer electronics, handheld devices and personal computers which utilize 60 GHz wireless technologies. The WiGIG specification includes 60 GHz RF Physical Layer (PHY) requirements and a variety of Protocol Adaptation Layer (PAL) baseband implementations. The initial PALs include HDMI and VESA DisplayPort for Audio/Video applications, USB for serial I/O applications, and PCIe for computer interface applications. Thus, Gigabit interoperability is specified at RF and Baseband interfaces.

We are currently expanding our existing 60 GHz facilities and capabilities to provide testing to the complete WiGIG specification, as well as the IEEE 802.11ad standard which closely parallels the WiGIG specification. Our expansion program is designed to provide conformance test services which encompass all three 60 GHz industry-based specifications, and maintain the ease of the one-stop shop approach to assisting manufacturers to comply with both regulatory and conformance requirements. This expansion program will also leverage the new capabilities in baseband conformance and protocol testing areas by offering additional testing services encompassing the related industry-standard baseband specifications.

Meanwhile, our current 60 GHz infrastructure is already set up for, and has been providing diagnostic testing services to WiGIG chipset developers.  Please contact Mike Heckrotte or Barbara Judge or visit www.ccsemc.com for more information.