Transceivers cut power consumption by 50%

The two new integrated rf to digital baseband transceivers, the AD9356 and AD9357, have been designed for deployment with 4G technology such as WiMax and LTE. The transceivers integrate 12bit ADCs, DACs, RF receive and transmit signal chains, and on chip frequency synthesizers. They combine to support beam forming applications and include two complete receivers, as well as two complete transmitters for the support of MIMO deployments. The transmitter's signal to noise ratio provides support for picocells and microcells from 13 to 36dBm output power at the antenna port, while designers can optimise receiver performance by configuring the transceivers to use an on chip automatic gain control algorithm. Tom Gratzek, product line director, WiMAX Transceiver Group, said: "Today's WiMAX and LTE infrastructure equipment generally rely on a multitude of discrete components, often exceeding power budgets while missing time to market goals. Typical picocell base station transceivers comprise six to eight active components, while microcell base stations can easily require double this component count." According to Gratzek, designs that exploit the AD9356 and AD9357 transceivers can reduce the component count for a 2 x 2 transceiver to a single device, while cutting power consumption by at least 50%.