Guerrilla RF sampling new set of high gain drivers for 5G mMIMO applications

With a rated operating range of 1.8–5GHz, each device can cover all major mMIMO bands with separate tunes covering 1.8–2.2GHz, 2.3–2.7GHz, 3.3–4.2GHz, and 4.4–4.7GHz.

“The GRF5123/4 are specialised, high-gain variants of Guerrilla RF’s popular pHEMT driver cores which are already used in 4G and 5G base station applications,” says Jim Ahne, Guerrilla RF’s VP of Automotive and 5G Products. “We tailored these specific devices to yield different gain levels for 64T64R or 32T32R 5G mMIMO platforms. They adhere to a common 3 x 3mm QFN-16 footprint that has become the de facto standard for many existing mMIMO systems, allowing them to be easily adopted by our customer base. Unlike existing competitive solutions, these new cores support 5V and 3.3V supply rails; utilising this lower voltage can lead to a 34% reduction in power consumption with approximately 2dB reductions in linearity and compression. This lower power rating can be a compelling trade-off when considering designs typically support 32 or 64 transmit paths. In 64T64R systems, reducing the supply rail from 5V to 3.3V for this single core can save over 10W of consumed power.”

When operated at 2.5GHz with a 5V supply and only 100mA of current, the GRF5123 delivers 37.4dB of gain, 22.9dBm of OP1dB compression, 38.6dBm of OIP3 linearity, and a low noise figure of 1.2dB. The GRF5124 provides 40.2dB of gain, 23.3dBm of OP1dB compression, 36.3dBm of OIP3 linearity, and a slightly higher noise figure of 1.6dB. Using a 3.3V supply typically reduces the gain by 1dB and the linearity and compression performance by 2dB.

Pricing and availability

Samples and evaluation boards are available for the GRF5123 and GRF5124. Prices start at $1.96 (10,000-up, EXW USA).