RF power transistor developers expand portfolios

NXP has expanded its eighth generation ldmos rf power transistor portfolio. Aimed at wireless basestation applications, the devices offer signal bandwidths of up to 115MHz of signal bandwidth. The latest Gen8 transistors have been designed for cost sensitive applications, says NXP. The parts offer P1dB power of up to 270W in an SOT502 package and 400W in an SOT539 packages. "After several months of development and testing, we are very pleased to release the newest members of our Gen8 ldmos rf power transistor family," said Christophe Cugge, NXP's director of marketing for basestation power amplifiers. "With optimized packaging, die design and input and output match structures, NXP Gen8 is emerging as the platform of choice for multistandard wideband Doherty power amplifiers that are highly compact, cost effective and power efficient." Meanwhile, Freescale has launched its first rf power amplifier featuring gallium nitride (GaN) technology. The AFG25HW355S is a 350W is 2:1 asymmetric device operating over frequencies ranging from 2.3 to 2.7GHz. It has a peak power of 56dBm, boasts an efficiency of 50% and a gain of 16dB. Ritu Favre, general manager of Freescale's RF Division, said: "Working with GaN in development since the mid 2000s, we have established an ideal blend of cost efficiency, performance and reliability. The time is now right to add GaN based products to our array of rf power amplifier solutions."