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Extreme wideband digital VGA with high power gain over band, smart lead routing and power save mode

Extreme wideband digital VGA with high power gain over band, smart lead routing and power save mode

Technology News |
By eeNews Europe



What differentiates one variable gain amplifier from another in today’s competitive device market? To answer that question, the entire transmit system of the base station transceiver block diagram must be taken into account.

Click on image to enlarge.

Higher output power, higher peak gain and smaller attenuator step sizes enables engineers to use fewer components and provides greater control to maintain and optimize transmit chain performance. Devices that operate over more than 2 GHz of bandwidth also stand out as allowing the same device to be populated for several frequency bands. Devices with pin-outs that do not cross other connections to the package make for a simpler design and as well as reduced footprint size. Further, devices that offer higher performance while consuming lower dissipated power tend to stay near the top of the decision tree.

NXP has recently introduced several new products, which offer the enhanced performance required by today’s RF engineers. The BGA7204 and BGA7210 are two good examples that provide these key advantages. These VGAs deliver 21 dBm and 23 dBm of output power at 1 dB compression, respectively, at their maximum gain setting with high output IP3, respectively 38 dBm and 39 dBm. The BGA7204 offers a maximum gain of 18 dB, while the BGA7210 provides 28 dB of max gain. Both devices deliver over 31.5 dB of gain control with a 6-bit 0.5 dB digital step attenuator. The BGA7204 supports operation across 0.4 GHz to 2.75 GHz while the BGA7210 operates over the extremely wide bandwidth of 0.7 GHz to 3.8 GHz. These devices are implemented in a single monolithic device, which enables simpler routing of board traces as well as high quality standards required by the most demanding wireless systems. This simpler routing results in a layout that is 25% smaller than that of the competition. Also, the BGA7204 and BGA7210 consume 10% less current than competitors while offering superior linearity performance and higher output power at 1 dB compression.

The BGA7210 provides a flexible current setting allowing even lower current consumption. For instance, if linearity is not as critical in the application, the current consumption may be reduced. Both products offer a power down mode that allows the current to be reduced to 15 mA, which is beneficial in Time Domain Division (TDD) systems. The BGA7210 supports fast switching on and off which dramatically saves current in the overall application based on the duty cycle. Also special care is taken inside the device to avoid the spurs during fast on and off switching. Last but not least, the customer evaluation kit provides executable control software on a USB flashdrive, which does not require installation.

These unconditionally stable devices offer ESD protection at all pins and meet moisture sensitivity level 2. The RoHS compatible devices are housed in 5 x 5 mm2 leadless HVQFN packages. These VGAs are well suited for GSM, W-CDMA, WiMAX, LTE Wireless Base stations, Wireless Point to point, Wireless repeaters, cable modem termination systems and temperature compensation circuits.

What enables these VGAs’ high performance is NXP’s innovative SiGe:C QUBiC4 process, which allows more functionality on-chip with less space. Smaller devices also mean more competitive costs, and added functionality on a single chip improves reliability and gives significant manufacturing advantages.

NXP’s state-of-the-art QUBiC4 technology speeds the migration from GaAs to silicon by offering best in class linearity, power consumption, immunity to out-of-band signals, spurious performance and output power. Available since 2002, this process continues to upgrade to meet today’s system performance requirements. This extensively tested process and widely deployed in the field offers consistent parameter performance.

Beyond these VGAs, NXP is one of the very few companies that can actually supply products for the complete signal chain (i.e. analog mixed signal components such as ADC/DAC + RF Small-Signal + High Power RF), allowing engineers to purchase products that work well together as part of the overall system design. This systems approach is certainly one that gives design engineers an edge when purchasing RFICs and MMICs from a supplier such as NXP. Clearly, it is an important strategy for semiconductor companies to take when designing and developing ICs for today’s high performance wireless infrastructure.

www.nxp.com

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