NXP Introduces Gen8 LDMOS Technology for Bandwidth Intensive Base Stations

NXP���s Gen8 LDMOS (Laterally Diffused Metal Oxide Semiconductor) transistors are being sampled for applications up to 960MHz with excellent linearization capabilities, extreme ruggedness and efficiencies in excess of 55 percent for multicarrier GSM power amplifiers. The second wave of products will cover GSM-WCDMA-LTE at 1800, 1900 and 2100 MHz and will sample during 2011.

Wireless infrastructure providers are under increasing pressure to bring cost-effective and power-efficient base stations to market quickly. The pressures are extending beyond emerging countries into the more mature markets, and are further compounded by the multiplicity of cellular standards, frequency bands and network sharing requirements for rural deployments. NXP’s Gen8 LDMOS technology is designed to address each of these challenges to deliver multiband and wideband power amplifiers, as well as multi-mode base transceiver stations (BTS) – with a low-energy, cost-optimized footprint.

* NXP’s Gen8 LDMOS RF power transistors offer more bandwidth, more power, better electrical efficiency in a smaller form factor and at a lower cost.
* Compared to the previous generation, Gen8 increases power density by 15 percent and improves power efficiency by around 5 percent (depending on the application).
* Peak power levels above 500 watts (P3dB) are now possible out of small and cost-effective SOT502-sized packages for peaking transistors.
* Increased video bandwidth now allows full-band operation.
* NXP's LDMOS technology used in RF power transistors typically runs at 28 V to 32 V, and delivers record performance up to 3.8 GHz.

Christophe Cugge, director of marketing, base station power amplifiers, NXP Semiconductors, said: “Wireless base station technology is continuously evolving to follow the growing use of bandwidth-intensive applications. NXP’s Gen8 LDMOS offers base station OEMs low-cost, highly-efficient technology to manufacture multi-standard, future-proof solutions with better production yields through tighter specifications for mass production. NXP has several Gen8 LDMOS reference designs in development, including asymmetric and 3-way Doherty amplifiers.”