News

13 February 2007

 

RFMD launches POLARIS 3 TOTAL RADIO transceiver for EDGE

At this week’s 2007 3GSM World Congress in Barcelona, Spain, RF Micro Devices Inc Greensboro, NC, USA is showcasing its new POLARIS 3 TOTAL RADIO solution, which features its antenna-to-baseband TOTAL RADIO implementation for EDGE handset platforms.

POLARIS 3 integrates full quad-band GPRS/EDGE RF transmit/receive paths, the transmit switch, receive SAW filters and associated matching components in a TOTAL RADIO implementation that optimizes all combined functions - from antenna to baseband - for improved transmit efficiency and increased receive sensitivity.

POLARIS 3 eliminates the sourcing and placement of external RF components, which reduces RF complexity, lowers platform implementation costs and improves overall handset performance. It also leverages RFMD's next-generation open-loop, large-signal polar modulation architecture, which is the industry's most efficient transmit architecture, RFMD claims. When combined with the optional DC-to-DC converter (announced separately), POLARIS 3 offers additional improvements in backed off efficiency and optimizes energy consumption over an extended battery voltage discharge profile.

“POLARIS 3 solution enables handset manufacturers to quickly and cost-effectively develop and deploy feature-rich EDGE handset platforms across multiple tiers,” says president and CEO Bob Bruggeworth. “By providing an antenna-to-baseband TOTAL RADIO solution, POLARIS 3 solves customers' complex RF challenges while fully satisfying their aggressive integration requirements,” he adds.

POLARIS 3 also integrates other technologies, as follows:

• RFMD's new, internally developed self-shielding technology eliminates the need for custom external shields by integrating RF shielding into the RFIC or module. This reduces volume for RF sections requirements by 30-50% while lessening sensitivity to board placement. The latter, together with eliminating the associated risk of circuit retuning, accelerates handset time-to-market and reduces the costs of RF implementation in mobile devices.
• The use of the DigRF 2.5G digital interface reduces RF complexity and shortens radio and baseband integration time.
• POLARIS 3 implements circuit techniques that improve total radiated power (TRP) performance, hence improving network efficiency, network coverage and data throughput rates while reducing the frequency of dropped calls.
• Internal factory calibration circuits and algorithms speed phone calibration and improve customer end-of-line factory throughput. Also, auto-calibration routines automatically optimize the cellular radio during use to improve overall handset performance.

Visit: http://www.rfmd.com