26 February 2014

RFMD's envelope tracking solutions to feature in leading 4G reference designs and 4G smartphones

At the 2014 GSMA Mobile World Congress (MWC) in Barcelona, Spain (24-27 February), RF Micro Devices Inc of Greensboro, NC, USA has announced that multiple upcoming 4G reference designs and 4G smartphones will feature its envelope tracking (ET) power amplifiers (PAs) and power management integrated circuits (PMICs). The ET-capable RF solutions enable next-generation 4G smartphones and tablets to achieve significantly enhanced power efficiency, resulting in enhanced battery life across modes and bands, increased network coverage, and higher data throughput.

The upcoming 4G baseband reference designs featuring RFMD’s ET-capable RF solutions will support global multi-mode, multi-band (MMMB) coverage and feature advanced multi-core processing capabilities. The upcoming 4G smartphones will incorporate multiple RFMD ET-capable RF solutions, including MMMB and discrete satellite PAs and ET PMICs. The firm estimates that its ET-capable RF solutions will support the leading ET-capable LTE devices scheduled to ramp in 2014, e.g. in an upcoming ET-capable flagship Android smartphone, RFMD’s content will include an ET MMMB PA (covering bands 1-5, 8, 18 and 26), three ET satellite PAs (for bands 7, 17 and 20), a PA module for TD-LTE (band 41), and 3G/4G antenna diversity switches.

“RFMD is uniquely positioned to expand our content in the world’s leading 4G devices throughout 2014, as major new programs are introduced and ramp to volume production,” reckons Eric Creviston, president of RFMD’s Cellular Products Group. “By combining our deep systems-level expertise with the breadth of our PA product portfolio and our leadership in RF power management, cellular switching, and antenna control, we are designing, manufacturing and delivering the broadest portfolio of scalable, end-to-end RF solutions, and we are helping the world’s leading smartphone manufacturers to progress quickly and efficiently from design and layout through to mass production,” he claims.

Unlike traditional PAs designed to operate with a constant supply voltage, the supply voltage applied to RFMD’s ET-enabled PAs is continuously adjusted so that the amplifier operates at maximum power efficiency. The result is much lower battery power consumption, particularly in LTE platforms. RFMD’s growing ET product portfolio is tailored for today’s leading LTE chipsets and provides full ET-compatible coverage of all FD-LTE and TD-LTE bands (1-14, 17-21, 25-28, 38, 39, 40, 41, and 44).

RFMD claims that it provides customers and reference design channel partners the broadest coverage of cellular modes and bands across all major RF functions, including ET- and average power tracking- (APT)-capable MMMB and discrete (single-band) PAs, APT and ET PMICs, cellular switches, antenna tuners, impedance tuners, routing switches, low-noise amplifiers (LNAs), antenna switch modules, switch filter modules, and switch duplexer modules.

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