The chipset comprises of four highly integrated ICs and delivers a complete solution that significantly reduces the number of components needed for 24 to 47GHz 5G radios.
As mmW 5G deployment accelerates, operators are facing greater pressure to reduce rollout costs while expanding their network footprint with more energy efficient, lightweight, and reliable radios. As a consequence, they need highly linear, compact, and power efficient wideband products that allow design reuse over multiple bands without undermining either the quality or performance.
The ADI mmW 5G front-end chipset allows OEMs to end the current trade-off between design execution difficulty and radio frequency (RF) performance for bandwidth, while also having to outsource critical pieces of intellectual property such as packaging, test, and thermal modelling.
The chipset comprises two single channel (1T1R) up/downconverters (UDCs) and two dual polarisation 16-channel beamformer devices on an advanced CMOS process.
The power efficiency and linear output power provided by the beamformers enable size, weight, power, and cost reduction in mmW phased array designs compared to many competing solutions. The full-band UDCs with high drive level eliminate the need for frequency band variants and absorb driver stages for bill of materials savings.
The chipset also enables the seamless operation of phased array calibration functions online in the field in addition to factory non-volatile memory (NVM) through patented IP. This allows OEMs to move beyond the constraints of legacy NVM-only designs limited to one-time factory calibration of the beamformer, which does not address non-idealities external to the ICs and can result in sub-optimal calibration results.
The mmW 5G front-end chipset includes:
ADMV4828 - 16-channel beamformer covering the entire 24-29.5GHz band in a single IC with >12.5dBm output power at 3% EVM with a 400MHz 64QAM 5G NR waveform while consuming only 310mW / channel;
ADMV4928 - 16-channel beamformer covering the entire 37 to 43.5GHz band in a single IC with >11.5dBm output power at 3% EVM with a 400MHz 64QAM 5G NR waveform while consuming only 340mW / channel;
ADMV1128 - 24GHz to 29.5GHz wideband UDC with optional on-chip RF switch and hybrid, x2 /x4 LO multiplier modes & baseband IQ support;
ADMV1139 - 37GHz to 50GHz wideband UDC for the upcoming 47GHz, as well as the 37 to 43.5GHz 5G NR bands, in a single IC with optional on-chip RF switch and hybrid, with baseband IQ support.
