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At this week’s 2008 GSMA Mobile World Congress in Barcelona, Spain, Avago Technologies is launching a new family of power amplifiers (PAs) based on the fifth generation of its CoolPAM technology.

The ACPM-7353 supports three power modes: high, mid and active-bypass mode, along with what are claimed to be the lowest quiescent current levels in the industry. These features can lower the average current of CDMA transmitter usage and conserve power consumption. The power-efficient and highly integrated ACPM-7353 also supports dual-band frequencies (cellular and USPCS) and offers a simplified PA design with a single RF input port for each band.

“Handsets tend to transmit at lower power levels as cellular network coverage matures, so efficiency at this power level is critical to optimizing performance,” says Philip Gadd, senior marketing director of Avago’s Wireless Semiconductor division. “Power amplifiers in mobile handsets do not need to operate continuously at high output power levels.”

In active-bypass mode, ACPM-7353 consumes very low quiescent current levels (down to 3mA) with 10dB gain and power levels up to 11dBm output power to improve the low power efficiency of a transmitter. The unique switchless architecture of CoolPAM technology is the foundation for providing the high power efficiency in the power amplifier, resulting in an increase in battery life of up to 10% over previous generations.

“Active-bypass mode in power amplifiers provides tremendous benefit to extending handset battery life in today’s CDMA and UMTS/GSM networks,” adds Gadd. “Avago's design team has successfully engineered the next generation of its CoolPAM-based power amplifiers to enable mobile handsets that run cooler and significantly reduce the amount of required current.”

Avago also introduced three more power amplifiers with active-bypass mode: the ACPM-7351 (dual-band IMT2000 and cellular support); the ACPM-7822 (J-CDMA support); and the ACPM-7824 (CDMA cellular support).

The new PAs are available in two form factors: a compact 4mm x 5mm module for the dual-band ACPM-7353 and ACPM-7351; a miniaturized 4mm x 4mm module for the ACPM-7822 and ACPM-7824. The simplified and integrated design of each new CoolPAM-based PA takes up less space than two discrete power amplifiers combined, Avago claims.

See related item:

Avago launches new handset and GPS components

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