Scintera Announces Highly Integrated Dual-Path RF Predistortion Linearizers

The SC2200 supports systems with 20MHz of signal BW and power levels from 250mW up to 5W at the antenna. Applications include MIMO small cells, distributed antenna systems, active antenna systems and multi-band SISO systems. The SC2220 supports systems with up to 75MHz signal BW and power levels from 2.5W up to 60W or more at the antenna. Applications include multi-antenna LTE remote radio heads, small cell MIMO and high power multi-band base stations.

Scintera’s cost-effective linearization solutions have given rise to a new generation of low power Doherty amplifiers that are specifically designed to operate with Scintera’s RFPAL. The introduction of the SC2200 now makes linearization of Class A/AB PAs economically feasible even for systems operating at levels as low as 24dBm (RMS) at the antenna. Low power Doherty PAs and even lower power Class A/AB PAs combined with Scintera’s dual-path linearizer delivers unprecedented transmitter efficiency to MIMO small cell base stations, DAS and AAS.

“By integrating two independent linearization paths into one compact SoC, the SC2200 and SC2220 continue to drive down the cost of multi-antenna and multi-band cellular systems that demand high efficiency and excellent linearity in lower output power cellular applications like operator-managed indoor small cells,” said Davin Lee, chief executive officer of Scintera. “Small cells have struggled with achieving low power consumption in a very small form factor. These new products specifically address applications where multiple linearizers are required including LTE MIMO, systems with multiple frequency bands and where arrays of transmitters need to achieve high efficiency and linearity. The SC2200 and SC2220 will play a key role in the deployment of small cells by enabling lighter and lower volume enclosures, the use of Power over Ethernet (PoE) through low power consumption and fast time to market by simplifying designs. All these benefits can be accomplished using our latest family of dual-path linearizers at compelling price points.”

The SC2200 and SC2220 provide additional features beyond linearization including (per path) integrated pre-amplifier, temperature-compensated gate biasing, triple RF power measurement (RFIN, PAOUT, and Reverse Power) and temperature sensor. In addition, a configurable set of ADCs and DACs may be used to measure the drain current and voltage of the final stage PA and set the appropriate gate bias. The SC2200 and SC2220 are highly flexible and adaptive RFin/RFout solutions supporting Class A/AB or Doherty RF PA designs with an operating frequency from 698 MHz to 2700 MHz and cellular communication protocols including CDMA/EVDO, TD-SCDMA, WiMAX, WCDMA/HSDPA, LTE and TD-LTE.

The SC2200 and SC2220 are packaged in an 80-pin, 11 mm x 11 mm QFN package enabling the implementation of the entire predistortion linearization solution in as little as 2.5 cm2 of board space. The compact system solution is easily integrated directly into the most restricted form factors including PA modules.