Digital Pre-Distortion ICs Boost Wireless Performance

Trumpeted as the industry’s highest-performance digital pre-distortion linearization devices, the 25-MHz OP4400-25 and 50-MHz OP4400-50 monolithic ICs employ the company’s proprietary Turbolinear technology to eliminate the signal integrity limitations imposed by nonlinear distortion inherent in power amplifiers found in wireless signal processing systems. The ICs are adaptive and universally applicable to any power-amp configuration, and they are independent of signal processing architectures, supporting all modulation schemes and amplifier configurations. The OP4400 family provides 16-bit resolution at speeds up to 250 Msamples/s with up to 250 MHz of pre-distortion bandwidth. Power efficiencies range up to 43% for Doherty-type amplifiers while using any carrier-frequency spacing and modulation standard. The devices are available in 256-pin BGA packages and operate over a temperature range from -40°C to +85°C. Sampling now, prices for the OP4400-25 and OP4400-50 are $112 and $200 each/1,000, respectively. Evaluation boards are also available. OPTICHRON INC., Fremont, CA. (510) 249-5200.