Analog Devices Delivers Breakthrough Radio Frequency Circuits for 4G Cellular Base Stations
Analog Devices has introduced a series of highly integrated RFICs (radio frequency integrated circuits) designed for LTE and 4th generation (4G) cellular base stations. LTE is a set of enhancements to the UMTS (universal mobile telecommunications system) standard and is considered to be the last step toward the 4th generation of radio technologies in cellular networks.
As worldwide mobile carriers evolve toward 4G technologies, small higher-density radio card form factors are needed to support the delivery of continuous voice and high-data-rate services. ADI’s new ADRF660x series of mixers and ADRF670x series of modulators enable these high-density radio cards by combining multiple discrete functional blocks into a single device, while meeting the demanding performance required by higher-capacity base stations. With this breakthrough level of integration, base station manufacturers can realize an unprecedented 60 percent reduction in board space and a significant savings on bill of materials costs.
“Today’s 3G and LTE base stations use many standard discrete RF components to optimize performance across both the transmit and receive RF signal paths. ADI’s new ADRF660x and ADRF670x products combine the radio frequency conversion functional blocks into one integrated circuit, without any sacrifice in performance,” said Peter Real, vice president, Linear and RF products, Analog Devices. “These new devices are based on ADI’s PLL/VCO synthesizer, mixer and modulator technologies, which offer the industry’s leading phase noise performance, power consumption and linearity for smaller form factor and higher density macro, micro, and picocell base stations.”