InGaP HBT power amp provides 23.5dBm output power
Designed for cellular applications requiring native linearity over temperature extremes, the GRF5521 is the latest InGaP HBT (heterojunction bipolar transistor) model in Guerilla RF’s 1/4W linear power amplifier family.
The GRF5521 is one of 10 1/4W linear power amplifiers (PAs) released as part of the company’s continued expansion into the cellular market. The InGaP HBT amplifiers were designed for 5G/4G wireless infrastructure applications requiring exceptional native linearity over temperature extremes of -40 to +85 degrees C.
Spanning a frequency range of 2.11 to 2.17GHz, the GRF5521 is tuned to operate within the n1, n65, and n66 5G new radio (NR) bands. It delivers 23.5dBm of linear power over the entire temperature range while maintaining ACLR levels of better than -45dBc, IMD3 levels less than -22dBm, EVM levels less than one per cent and PAE efficiencies above 20 per cent, said Guerilla RF and all without the aid of supplemental linearisation schemes like digital pre-distortion (DPD).
The ability to beat the -45dBc ACLR performance metric without DPD is critical for cellular applications like residential and commercial repeaters / boosters, femtocells, picocells and cable loss compensators associated with automotive ‘shark fin’ antennas, explained Guerilla RF. In each of these use cases, the sensitivity to cost, power and size constraints prohibits the use of elaborate linearisation techniques and designers must rely on the power amplifier’s native linearity to meet the stringent emissions mask requirements imposed by 5G and 4G standards.
Guerilla RF designed the GRF55xx series to be footprint-compatible, enabling customers to rapidly customise designs for a wide selection of cellular frequencies.
Ryan Pratt, CEO and founder of Guerrilla RF, said the company will offer production-released products covering every major cellular band between 660 and 4200MHz. These linear power amplifiers are popular with cellular booster / repeater and automotive customers, he said.
The GRF55xx family comes in pin-compatible 3.0 x 3.0mm, 16-pin QFN packages. Samples and evaluation boards are available for the GRF5521.
