Infineon introduces GaN devices for mobile base station transmitters

     Infineon says the device, part of its gallium nitride product family, allows mobile base station manufacturers to build smaller, more powerful and flexible transmitters. With higher efficiency, improved power density, and more bandwidth than existing RF power transistors, the new devices improve the infrastructure built to support the economics of current cellular networks, the company claims. They should also pave the way for the transition to 5G technology with higher data volumes, which increases.

     "This new device family combines innovation with the knowledge needed for mobile communications infrastructure applications to deliver next-generation RF power transistors to our global customer base," said Gerhard Wolff, Vice President, General Manager of Infineon's RF Power product line. They have allowed significant improvements in operating performance and reduced the size of the transmitter side of the mobile base station, "he added," In addition, the transition to wideband gap semiconductor technology has set us at a pace of continuous development of the cellular infrastructure." 

     The performance of the new RF power transistor lever-gan technology achieves 10% higher efficiency and five times the power density of LDMOS transistors commonly used today, which cannot be ignored. This translates into much smaller space and power requirements for the current use of base station transmitters for power amplifiers (PA), which operate either in the frequency range of 1.8-2.2 or 2.3-2.7GHz. Future GaN-ON-SiC devices also support frequency ranges up to 6GHz in 5G cellular bands. Infineon estimates that this roadmap allows it to leverage its expertise and production technology for RF transistor technology.

     Design flexibility and support for next-generation 4G technology are additional benefits of GaN devices for RF power applications. The new device has twice the RF bandwidth of LDMOS, so that a single power amplifier (PA) can support multiple operating frequencies. They have also increased the instantaneous bandwidth available for transmitters, which allows operators to offer higher dates using data aggregation techniques specified in 4.5G cellular networks.