Analog Devices expands RadioVerse design ecosystem

Analog Devices Inc. today announced the latest update to its RadioVerse technology and design ecosystem, which simplifies and accelerates radio development for wireless carriers and telecommunications equipment manufacturers as they transition their cellular base stations from 4G to 5G networks.

In a recent phone interview, Jie Weng and Peadar Forbes, who handle RF marketing at Analog Devices, explained that 4G and the transition to 5G will require “ultra connectivity,” with traffic increasing 1,000-fold, bit rates extending from 100 Mb/s everywhere to 10 Gb/s peak, and latency falling below 1 ms. Forbes cited Ericsson Mobility estimates that mobile data traffic is growing at a 40% CAGR.

Forbes said ADI’s customers face pressure to innovate complicated by challenges stemming from proliferation of radio form factors and frequency bands; difficulties in building penetration; the need to reduce radio size, weight, and power (SWaP); spectrum scarcity; and ever shrinking times to market. He said, “Small cells and massive MIMO are key building block technologies to enhance network coverage and capacity.”

Small cells, he added, enhance capacity through spectrum reuse and network densification, while massive MIMO can provide fivefold capacity through support of higher data rates and spectrum reuse through beamforming. He cited market forecasts showing significant increases in small-cell BTS and 64T64R massive MIMO through 2021, with 128T128R massive MIMO beginning to appear in 2020. The technologies, he said, present challenges in number of bands and number of antennas per system, respectively, and both require high-efficiency power amplifiers—a requirement addressed traditionally through digital predistortion (DPD) algorithms implemented in FPGAs.

To help meet the growing challenges, Forbes said, RadioVerse combines ADI radio technologies with an ecosystem of tools, documentation, reference designs, and modules, and it facilitates cooperation among “best of breed partners” as well as roadmap planning. He described RadioVerse as a “one-stop shop” with more than 200,000 unique visitors since its launch last year. RadioVerse, he said, spans multiple applications areas, including 3G/4G BTS and small-cell applications, massive MIMO, military applications, wireless video transmission, software-defined radio, and IoT edge and gateway applications. Partners participating in one or more of these applications include Benetel, Equip, Ettus, HJX, Nanosemi, NXP, SIHID, Simpuls, Skyworks, Vanteon, and ZeroTech.

Weng then explained that the AD9371, introduced last year, replaced 20 discrete parts. The newest RadioVerse release includes the AD9375 RF transceiver, which, she said, is the first RF transceiver to incorporate the digital predistortion (DPD) algorithm on-chip—a design breakthrough that reduces DPD power consumption by 90% compared with competing solutions and that cuts the number of required SERDES lanes by half. The chip, she said, incorporates two transceivers, two receivers, one observation receiver, and one sniffer receiver. It offers a 40-MH max DPD bandwidth, a 300-MHz to 6-GHz frequency range, a 6-Gb/s JESD204B interface, and less than 5-W power consumption.

The new offering allows customers to quickly evaluate and develop radio designs for 4G small cell and pre-5G massive MIMO systems, key building blocks in the transition to 5G, enabling faster data rates while improving connectivity and data throughput in densely populated, high-traffic areas such as office buildings, stadiums, and public transit systems.

Weng also introduced the AD9375 small-cell radio reference design with DPD, an 88.5 x 83.5-mm board, incorporating a complete JESD204B-to-antenna design with 250-mW output power per antenna. It contains all necessary components including transceiver, PAs, LNAs, and filters plus a power supply. It consumes less than 10 W.

RadioVerse design and technology ecosystem accelerates wireless development

ADI said its RadioVerse prototyping platforms also provide advanced simulation and analysis of the transceiver using MATLAB and Simulink modeling software, device drivers and full evaluation systems that directly connect to FPGA development platforms, and third-party hardware for moving quickly from concept to market. The design environment accelerates customer time-to-market through access to ADI’s EngineerZone online technical support community, which hosts customer support forums, quick-start videos, technical articles, webcasts, and product highlights.

Analog Devices said will continue to expand its RadioVerse design environment through partnerships with leading power amplifier (PA) suppliers, including NXP Semiconductors N.V. and Skyworks Solutions Inc., providing customers with test reports for AD9375 DPD with PA products of various output power and frequencies.

Pricing and availability

To learn more about the RadioVerse technology and design ecosystem including ADI’s RF transceiver product series, visit http://www.analog.com/RadioVerse. View the AD9375 RF transceiver product page, download data sheet, and order samples and evaluation boards at http://www/analog.com/AD9375. The company will be highlighting RadioVerse this week at IMS in Honolulu.