0.25w InGaP HBT PAs are AEX-Q100-qualified
Linear power amplifiers (Pas) by Guerrilla RF are intended for automotive and 5G infrastructure in the 2.5 and 3.6GHz bands.
The GRF5526, GRF5526W, GRF5536 and GRF5536W have been added to the company’s InGaP HBT PA series. The complete series now covers all primary cellular bands spanning 615 to 4200MHz.
The GRF5526W and GRF5536W are the first of the GRF55xx series to be AEC-Q100-qualified for automotive applications. The full qualification is targeted to be completed by the end of the summer, with advance production quantities available now.
All four PAs are also suitable for the 5G cellular boosters / repeaters and cellular compensators / compensators associated with automotive shark fin antennas.
The new linear PAs targeting 5G wireless infrastructure applications requiring exceptional native linearity over 100MHz bandwidths and over a wide temperature range of -40 to +105 degrees C. Each can deliver up to 23dBm of output power over the entire temperature range with better than -45dBc of ACLR performance and EVM levels less one per cent – all without the aid of supplemental linearisation schemes like digital pre-distortion (DPD).
The ability to beat the -45dBc ACLR (adjacent channel leakage ratio) performance metric without DPD is critical for size, cost and power-sensitive cellular applications like home and commercial repeaters/boosters, femtocells, picocells and cable loss compensators found in automobiles.
The PAs span frequencies 2.3 to 2.7GHz and 3.3 to 4.2GHz respectively, the GRF5526 / GRF5526W and GRF5536 / GRF5536W are tuned to operate within the n7, n30, n38, n40, n41, n48, n53, n77, n88 and n90 5G new radio (NR) bands.
Target applications are home and commercial repeaters/boosters, femtocells, and picocells, as well as cable loss compensators which are used in conjunction with automotive ‘shark fin’ antennas. In each of these use cases, the sensitivity to cost, power and size constraints prohibits the use of elaborate linearisation techniques like DPD, explained Guerrilla RF. Instead, designers must rely on the power amplifier’s native linearity to meet the stringent emissions mask requirements imposed by the latest 5G standards.
With the introduction of the GRF5526 and GRF5536 Guerrilla RF now has a complete suite of commercially available linear PAs addressing all bands targeted by our 5G and automotive customer base, said Jim Ahne, Guerrilla RF’s vice president of automotive and 5G products. “The GRF5536 variants are particularly noteworthy since they capitalise on the growing popularity of the C-band – what many in the industry hail as the most attractive spectrum for 5G applications due to its ideal blend of propagation coverage and available bandwidth,” he added.
Variants of the GRF55xx family – including the GRF5526W and GRF5536W – are being qualified for full AEC-Q100 compliance. By the end of the summer, Guerrilla RF will have introduced multiple -W variants of linear PAs.
The GRF5526, GRF5526W, GRF5536 and GRF5536W come in pin-compatible 3.0 x 3.0mm, 16-pin QFN packages. Samples and evaluation boards are available for all four components.
