The GLIMMR project
The Gigabit Low-cost Integrated Millimeter-wave Radio (GLIMMR) project, was the brainchild of Neil H. E. Weste and was focused on the research and development of a single-chip 60 GHz transceiver with integral antenna.
Neil's vision for the commercial space, which such a chip can fulfill, was for short high-data rate links, for applications such as transfer of video from a mobile device to a computer or for wireless backup of large amounts of data. Neil envisioned this as an extension of the Bluetooth concept to very high data-rates and dubbed this new paradigm Bluefang.
Other possible application spaces are wireless home video, point-to-point backbone links, low cost radars, and mm-wave imaging.
The original team was Anthony E. Parker, Derek Abbott, William G. Cowley, and Neil H. E. Weste who together successfully applied for an ARC Linkage Grant LP0560715 entitled Millimetre Wave Communication Systems for Consumer Applications. The ARC component of the funding was $450,000 per annum for three years 2005-2007. The total cash funding including contributions from partners and the ARC was $1.6 million.
On award of the grant, the team rapidly expanded and two SiGe test chips were designed, fabricated, and tested. This page is a historical record of the achievements, and also documents further follow-on work in the 60 GHz regime carried out at the University of Adelaide.
Contents
The Glimmr team
The original 'Glimmrites' on the winning ARC prioposal were Anthony E. Parker, Derek Abbott, William G. Cowley, Neil H. E. Weste, and on award of the grant the team rapidily expnded to take on the following structure.
Glimmr leader
- Neil H. E. Weste adjunct professor at the University of Adelaide and adjunct professor Macquarie University, also representing NHEW R&D Pty. Ltd.
Macquarie University
- Anthony E. Parker, Leader of the Macquarie University node of Glimmr
- Michael Boers
- Linda Davis
- Jeffrey Harrison
- James Howarth
- James Rathmell
University of Adelaide
- Derek Abbott, Leader of the University of Adelaide node of Glimmr
- Said F. Al-Sarawi
- Leonard T. Hall, postdoc
- Yingbo Zhu, postdoc
- Noorfazila Kamal, PhD student
University of South Australia
- William G. Cowley, Leader of the University of Adelaide node of Glimmr
- Ian Holland
- Adnan Khan
- Andre Pollock
Partner organisations
Glimmr publications
[1] L. T. Hall, H. J. Hansen, B. R. Davis, and D. Abbott, "Performance analysis of a series transformer for complex impedance matching," Microwave & Optical Technology Lett., Vol. 45, No. 6, pp. 491–494, 2005.
[2]
J. A. Howarth, A. Lauterbach, M. Boers, L.M. Davis, A. Parker, J. Harrison, J. Rathmell, M. Batty, W. G. Cowley, C. Burnet, L. T. Hall, D. Abbott and N. H. E. Weste, "60GHz radios: enabling next-generation wireless applications," Society of Photo-Optical Instrumentation Engineers , Melbourne, Australia, November 21–24, 2005, pp.1–6, http://dx.doi.org/10.1109/TENCON.2005.300975
