- News
26 February 2018
MACOM launches MAGM series of GaN-on-Si MMIC power amplifiers for massive MIMO 5G
© Semiconductor Today Magazine / Juno PublishiPicture: Disco’s DAL7440 KABRA laser saw.
In room #CC 8.15 (hall 8.1) at the Mobile World Congress (MWC 2018) in Barcelona Spain (26 February – 1 March), MACOM Technology Solutions Inc of Lowell, MA, USA has launched the MAGM series of gallium nitride on silicon (GaN-on-Si)-based MMIC power amplifiers (PAs) optimized for massive MIMO antenna systems targeting 5G wireless basestation infrastructure.
Providing wideband performance simultaneously covering bands 42 and 43 with flat power and superior power efficiency compared with legacy LDMOS silicon technology, the new MAGM PA Series is said to deliver GaN performance at LDMOS-like cost structures at scaled volume production levels in fully integrated MMIC packaging for simplified, cost-effective 5G base-station manufacturing.
MAGM Series MMIC PAs are tailored specifically for mainstream 5G base-station architectures, meeting the power density and thermal requirements of 64-element massive MIMO antenna arrays, with a pathway to exceeding the performance of LDMOS technology, at scaled volume level production cost structures and supply capacities that cannot be achieved with competing GaN-on-SiC technology, it is claimed.
Designed with MACOM’s proprietary wideband circuit topology, the PAs meet the stringent 5G TDD linearity requirement using off-the-shelf digital-pre-distortion (DPD) systems.
Compared with earlier-generation multichip-format GaN-on-Si modules, costs are further lowered through a reduction in packaging and design complexity.
Leveraging this performance and cost with the capacity-scale manufacturing afforded by MACOM’s partnership with STMicroelectronics of Geneva, Switzerland, MACOM expects its GaN-on-Si solutions to shorten customers’ time to market.
“MACOM’s new MAGM Series PAs combine the unique performance and cost benefits inherent to GaN-on-Si technology with the MMIC packaging efficiencies needed for commercial volume-scale 5G base-station manufacturing and deployment,” says Amer Droubi, director product marketing. “Our continuous innovation in this domain sets a strong foundation for next-generation multi-function GaN-on-Si MMICs targeted to enable fully integrated front-end modules for massive MIMO 5G base-station architectures.”
The first product in the MAGM Series (MAGM-103436-040AOP) is sampling to qualified customers now, with production availability scheduled for second-half 2018.
MACOM and ST to develop GaN-on-Si manufacturing for mainstream RF applications
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