Peregrine Expands MPAC-Doherty range
Silicon on Insulator (SOI) company Peregrine Semiconductor has introduced two UltraCMOS monolithic phase and amplitude controllers products - the PE46130 and PE46140.
These join the PE46120 in offering maximum phase-tuning flexibility for Doherty power amplifier (PA) optimisation. Designed for the LTE and LTE-A wireless-infrastructure transceiver market, the MPAC-Doherty product family now extends from 1.8 to 3.8GHz with three separate, pin-compatible parts.
"Phase and amplitude control is critical to the future of communications, where everything from LTE and 5G to radar will rely on the efficient exchange of data," says Kinana Hussain, director of marketing at Peregrine Semiconductor.
"Peregrine's monolithic phase and amplitude controllers will support this future. Today's addition of two integrated products to Peregrine's MPAC-Doherty product family is only the beginning. Upcoming products in the MPAC family will support beamforming, full wireless duplex and 5G applications. Furthermore, the entire MPAC portfolio will continue to showcase the intelligent integration capabilities of Peregrine's UltraCMOS technology."
Each MPAC-Doherty product eliminates the need for discrete components and integrates a 90-degree RF splitter, 5-bit digital phase shifters, a 4-bit digital step attenuator and a digital serial peripheral (SPI) interface on a single monolithic die.
The PE46130 and PE46140 are suitable for optimising GaN-based Doherty PAs, which are preferred at higher frequencies.
Low-frequency Doherty amplifiers are typically based on lLDMOS technology as it is cheaper and more effiicient at frequencies less than 2.0 GHz. However, at higher frequencies, this efficiency breaks down and GaN-based Doherty PAs are used for their ability to maintain performance and meet high power density requirements. The UltraCMOS PE46130 covers a frequency range of 2.3 to 2.7 GHz and PE46140 extends from 3.4 to 3.8 GHz.
According to Peregrine, the PE46130 and PE46140 reduces the bill of materials (BOM) by improving the overall yield of expensive Doherty power amplifier assemblies using high efficiency GaN transistors. Additionally, these controllers offer performance advantages in power added efficiency, linearity across the frequency range, Doherty bandwidth through better matching and increased effectiveness of the digital pre-distortion loop.
The monolithic controllers can be programmed remotely through the digital interface to accommodate varying field requirements. This flexibility allows engineers to adjust the phase and amplitude in real-time for operational and environmental factors.
The controllers cover a phase range of 87.2 degrees in 2.8-degree steps and an attenuation range of 7.5 dB in 0.5 dB steps. The PE46130 and PE46140 deliver linearity of greater than 60 dBm IIP3 and power consumption of 0.35 mA.
Each controller provides high power handling of 35 dBm P0.1dB and port-to-port isolation of 30dB. UltraCMOS technology enables the controllers to deliver ESD performance of at least 1 kV on all RF pins, an extended temperature range up to 105degC and a power supply range from 2.3 to 5.5V. Each controller is offered in a RoHS compliant, 32-lead 6 x 6 mm QFN.
