News

12 November 2009

 

RFMD receives first GaN order from tier-1 wireless base-station maker

RF Micro Devices Inc of Greensboro, NC, USA has received its first purchase order from a tier-one wireless base station original equipment manufacturer (OEM) for a product featuring its gallium nitride (GaN) process technology. The order is for the RFG1M09180 180W GaN broadband power transistor (BPT) and is in support of the global expansion of 4G wireless networks.

The RFG1M09180 BPT supports LTE (long-term evolution) at 750-800MHz, 3GPP/IS95 at 865-895MHz and multi-carrier GSM at 930-960MHz, enabling cost-effective and energy-efficient support of multi-standard base-stations. The product is part of the RFG1M power device family, which addresses power requirements from 30W to 360W, offers wider bandwidth than incumbent LDMOS technology, and supports wireless communication bands from 0.7GHz to 3.8GHz. The RFG1M family also features internal matching and is optimized for high-efficiency techniques, such as Doherty and envelope tracking.

“We are actively targeting the base-station HPA market, which we expect will represent approximately half of the high-power RF market within the next three years,” says Bob Van Buskirk, president of RFMD’s Multi-Market Products Group (MPG).

RFMD claims that, compared with existing semiconductor technologies, its GaN process technology delivers superior RF power per square millimeter and superior RF conversion efficiency. The firm also claims that, in wireless base-station applications, GaN HPAs deliver industry-leading power performance at significantly reduced energy requirements. This satisfies the increasing focus on ‘green’ technologies by enabling more efficient operation of network equipment and by reducing network-related energy costs, it adds.

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