Technical Insight
Raytheon unveils a 5GHz radio chipset (New Devices)
San Jose, CA. Raytheon has released Tondelayo, a 54 Mbit/s radio chipset based on the IEEE 802.11(a) standard for high-speed wireless networks in the 5 GHz UNII band. The chipset includes a power amplifier/switch module, together with RF, IF and baseband chips. Volume production and delivery are planned for the third quarter of 2001. The RTPA-5250 PA/switch was developed using Raytheon s 0.5 m GaAs PHEMT process and features T/R and antenna selection switches in addition to the amplifier gain stages, providing lower loss, an improved noise figure and fewer parts. The RTCV-5500 LNA up/down converter and RTIF-5500 IF converter ICs are SiGe-based and provide 73 dB of receive gain, 60 dB of programmable attenuation and 7 dB transmit attenuation. The baseband IC was developed in CMOS (see ). Raytheon named the chipset in memory of Hollywood actress Hedy Lamarr, who starred as the character "Tondelayo" in a 1942 movie, and who is also credited as the original patent-holder for Spread Spectrum technology. www.tondelayo.com
