IDT Announces Industry’s Lowest-power Low-distortion Mixer for 4G Wireless Base Station Transceivers

The new LTE mixer is an important RF product in IDT’s strategy to provide the industry with a complete radio card signal chain, from the antenna to the digital signal processors.

The IDTF1162 is a low-power, low-distortion dual 2300-2700 MHz RF to IF mixer with an ultra-linear (+43 dBm) third-order intercept point for superb intermodulation rejection, making it ideal for multi-carrier, multi-mode cellular systems found in 4G wireless base station transceivers. Compared to competitive solutions, the IDTF1162 improves IM3 distortion by 18 dB while simultaneously reducing power consumption by an industry-leading 40 percent (1150 mW typical). These attributes ease heat-sinking requirements on the radio card and allow infrastructure vendors to utilize higher average frontend gain settings, which results in higher signal-to-noise ratio. Improved receiver SNR of up to 0.4 dB benefits cellular operators by expanding the coverage area and improving the available data rates to users on the periphery of the cell.

“Our latest mixer product is yet another example of IDT’s penetration into the $600M radio card market for wireless infrastructure,” said Tom Sparkman, general manager and vice president of the Communications Division at IDT. “Following the previously announced IDTF1150 and IDTF1152, the IDTF1162 offers a higher-frequency input with all the industry-leading benefits that our customers expect from IDT. These products complement other solutions from IDT’s wireless signal chain solutions portfolio, including Serial RapidIO, high-performance timing, and data compression.”

The IDTF1162 offers fast settling from power-up and a constant local oscillator input impedance. This allows customers to power-down the mixer between TDD receiver slots, further reducing power consumption. In addition, the device is designed to operate at a continuous package case temperature of 100°C, an important feature for ICs within the densely populated remote radio head enclosure. Similar to other members of IDT’s RF mixer family, the IDTF1162 is pin-compatible with existing devices on the market, offering a compelling upgrade option.

The IDTF1162 is currently sampling to qualified customers and is available in a 6x6 mm package.