Leading edge

Mobile phone users are becoming accustomed to downloading video and music clips, full multimedia messaging, high speed colour internet access and email on the move. But these features don’t come without some technology pain. These improvements to mobile phone functionality come from enhanced data rates for gsm evolution (edge), which has seen data capacity boosted by up to three times over that of existing gprs technology. And this has required developments at both ends of the link – at the basestation and the mobile phone. In order to provide more basestation power, Freescale has introduced what it claims is the industry’s first two stage rf ics, capable of delivering the 100W rf output power required for gsm and edge network base stations. And when driven by Freescale’s general purpose amplifier, these rf ics offer a 100W power amplifier (pa) solution for wireless base stations operating at 900 and 1800MHz. This provides significant advantages for the gsm and edge market. Historically, the output power of two stage rf ics has been limited to less than 30W, relegating them to driver and pre driver applications. Previous designs also required a separate high power transistor to achieve the 50dB of gain and the 100W of output power typically required for gsm edge transmitters. Now, only a pa and one rf ic are required.