Freescale Introduces GaN RF Power Transistor for Cellular Basestations
Freescale Semiconductor has introduced its first GaN RF power transistor for cellular base stations. The A2G22S160-01S is for use in 30W and 40W amplifiers for wireless infrastructure applications, and represents the first of what is planned to become a broad portfolio of Airfast family GaN transistors for the cellular market.
The announcement comes a few months following the company's introduction of the MMRF5014H - Freescale's first GaN RF power transistor for military and industrial applications.
While GaN migration has been cost prohibitive in the past, recent commercial and technological advances are driving manufacturing costs lower, according to the company.
"Freescale is driving the transition of GaN from niche markets to mainstream applications like cellular infrastructure," said Paul Hart, senior vice president and general manager of Freescale's RF business. "The time is right to deliver GaN solutions to our extremely broad base of telecommunications customers. In addition to utilising the A2G22S160-01S' excellent performance, our cellular customers can look forward to leveraging Freescale's high-volume production capability and worldwide customer support."
Freescale's Airfast family of RF power products covers the wireless cellular spectrum from 600 MHz to 3.8 GHz, with multiple semiconductor technology options. In a 40 W Doherty two-way asymmetrical amplifier employing one A2G22S160-01S in the carrier path and two in the peaking path, maximum output power is 56.2 dBm. With 8dB output back-off (OBO), gain is 15.4 dB and efficiency is 56.7 percent. Adjacent-channel power (ACP) is -55dBc with digital predistortion (DPD) when driven by two 20 MHz LTE carriers with an aggregate 40 MHz carrier bandwidth.
