Power amplifiers provide 23dBm of natively linear output power for 5G
Guerrilla RF is sampling the GRF5526 and GRF5536, the latest in a series of 0.25W linear power amplifiers released by the company.
These InGaP HBT (heterojunction bipolar transistor) amplifiers were designed specifically for 5G wireless infrastructure applications requiring exceptional native linearity over large 100MHz bandwidths and temperature extremes of -40 degrees C to 85 degrees C.
The amplifiers span frequency ranges of 2.5 to 2.7GHz and 3.3 to 4.2GHz respectively. The GRF5526 and GRF5536 are tuned to operate within the n7, n30, n38, n40, n41, n48, n53, n77, n88 and n90 5G new radio (NR) bands. The devices typically deliver 23dBm of linear power over the entire -40 degrees C to 85 degrees C temperature range, while maintaining ACLR levels of better than -45dBc, IMD3 levels more than -20dBm, EVM levels less than 1.5 per cent, and PAE efficiencies in the 14 per cent range – without the aid of supplemental linearisation schemes such as digital pre-distortion (DPD).
The ability to beat the -45dBc adjacent channel leakage ratio performance metric without DPD is critical for cellular applications such as home and commercial repeaters/boosters, femtocells, and picocells, as well as cable loss compensators that are used in conjunction with automotive ‘shark fin’ antennas. Cost, power and size constraints prohibit the use of elaborate linearisation techniques such as DPD. Instead, designers must rely on the power amplifier’s native linearity to meet the stringent emissions mask requirements imposed by the latest 5G standards.
During the development of the GRF55xx series, Guerrilla RF consulted directly with its customers to ensure the devices delivered the best blend of power and linearity to maximise the effective range and throughput for their cellular systems. Guerrilla RF also designed the family of devices to be fully footprint compatible, enabling its customer base to customise their designs for many cellular frequencies.
“With the addition of the GRF5526 and GRF5536, GRF has now completely filled out its portfolio of 0.25W PAs for cellular applications,” said Ryan Pratt, CEO and founder of Guerrilla RF.
The GRF5526 and GRF5536 come in pin-compatible 3.0 x 3.0mm, 16-pin QFN packages. Samples and evaluation boards are available now.
Founded in 2013 and based in Greensboro, North Carolina, USA Guerrilla RF develops and manufactures monolithic microwave integrated circuits (MMICs) to wireless OEMs in 5G/4G macro and small cell base stations, cellular repeaters/DAS, automotive telematics such as SDARS/V2X/GPS/DAB, mission-critical military communications, navigation and high-fidelity wireless audio. The product line includes low noise amplifiers, gain blocks, driver amplifiers, mixers, RF switches and linear PAs (power amplifiers).
