Make no mistake, 5G is on the way, as evidenced by a series of articles on the topic in EE-Evaluation Engineering, culminating in the cover story in the June issue.1 If you want more evidence, it can be had from reports from the International Microwave Symposium, held June 10-15 in Philadelphia. Qorvo, for example, introduced five new power amplifiers and front-end modules that further expand its portfolio of RF products for massive MIMO and 5G base stations. NXP Semiconductors said it is driving innovation with its expanded cellular infrastructure portfolio of GaN and silicon laterally diffused metal-oxide semiconductor (Si-LDMOS) products that will enable next-generation 5G cellular networks.
Wolfspeed is targeting its LDMOS portfolio at improved 4G networks and the shift to 5G.
Anokiwave said its complete 5G Gen-2 Silicon Quad Core IC family now supports all major 5G mmWave bands—24/26 GHz, 28 GHz, and 37/39 GHz—and is part of Anokiwave’s ongoing strategy to enable the commercialization of 5G mmWave systems with silicon ICs.
Maintaining 2G, 3G, and 4G
But there is a key factor to keep in mind. As 5G arrives, 4G, 3G, and even 2G aren’t going away. “OEMs must be able to address all the current and emerging cellular standards,” said Bill McKenney, marketing director for the RadioVerse product line at Analog Devices Inc. RadioVerse has the goal of handling “…emerging wideband applications while delivering the high-performance required for existing applications.”
RadioVerse is Analog Devices’ “…design ecosystem, which provides customers with integrated transceiver technologies, a robust design environment, and market-specific technical expertise to move their radio designs from concept to creation quickly,” as a 2016 report from IMS put it.2
The company’s latest entry in the ecosystem is the ADRV9008/9 RF transceiver family, which delivers twice the bandwidth (200 MHz) of previous-generation devices and replaces as many as 20 components, cutting power consumption in half and package size by 60%. With its performance and reduced size, weight and power, the ADRV9008/9 transceiver (Figure 1) meets the antenna-density and expanded network-capacity requirements of emerging 5G wireless infrastructure equipment.
Apart from 5G, McKenney cited challenges for aerospace and defense applications as well as test and measurement. For the former, he said, platforms must support proprietary protocols and waveforms, and offer low SWaP for man-pack devices.
And for defense and aerospace applications, he said, the new transceivers offer simplified digital beamforming for phased-array radar, supporting multichip phase synchronization with internal local oscillators. In addition, they provide enhanced frequency agility, lowering the probability of detection and intercept while ensuring link security, situational awareness, and spectrum efficiency.
For instrumentation, McKenney said, the transceivers offer wide bandwidth and high channel density while enabling lab-grade performance in compact, portable equipment. In addition, the devices’ sub-6-GHz coverage enables a common test-equipment platform design for different applications while the modular architecture enables scalable SDR solutions.
McKenney said the ADRV9008/9 is launching with a development toolkit, a tested API, and software libraries, and third-party COTS products in production-ready form factors. At IMS, Lorin Sandler, director of sales and marketing at EPIQ Solutions, described his company’s Sidekiq X4 as a COTS PCIe-based FPGA carrier card integrated into a Thunderbolt 3 chassis. It incorporates two ADRV9009 devices to serve 5G, 802.11ac/ax, satellite communications, digital radio-frequency memory (DRFM), spectrum-monitoring, electronic warfare, and other applications. EE
References
1. Nelson, Rick, “Ecosystem gears up as world awaits 5G rollout,” EE-Evaluation Engineering, June 2018, p. 6.
2. “Analog Devices debuts RadioVerse technology and design ecosystem,” EE-Evaluation Engineering Online, May 24, 2016.
