31 Aug 2012

GaAs driver amplifiers operate from 50 to 1500MHz

TriQuint Semiconductor has released two new packaged 1W and 2W gallium arsenide (GaAs) RF driver amplifiers. The new products are said to provide best-in-class linearity, low power consumption, and advanced protection features for CDMA, WCDMA and LTE base stations or similar applications. These latest members of TriQuint’s growing third-generation family of 5V linear driver amplifiers are claimed to offer high performance across an operating range of 50 to 1500 MHz.

In addition to their superior performance in cellular base transceiver stations (BTS), the TQP7M9105 and TQP7M9106 are said to be equally well suited for RF designs in remote radio head (RRH), small cell BTS and defence amplifier configurations.

The new TQP7M9105 delivers 1W (+30dBm) of RF output power at 1dB gain compression (P1dB) and 19.4dB of gain, and an Output Third-Order Intercept Point (OIP3) of 49dBm, matching the highest linearity in its class, while consuming only 220mA from its single +5V supply.

The TQP7M9106 delivers 2W (+33dBm) P1dB RF output power with 20.8dB of gain, and 50dBm OIP3, which is greater than competing devices, yet draws only 455mA from its +5V supply, says the company.

Both devices integrate on-chip circuits that allow them to achieve linearity typical of amplifiers operating in Class A mode, yet with Class AB efficiency.

The devices are also electrically rugged to handle the often “out-of-spec” operating conditions they can experience. For example, the devices provide protection from RF input overdrive as well as from DC overvoltage. In addition, their on-chip electrostatic discharge (ESD) protection enables the devices to meet stringent Class 1C HBM specifications, which makes them able to withstand most stray voltages typically encountered in normal manufacturing environments. The devices are housed in lead-free, RoHS-compliant SOT-89 (TQP7M9105) and 4x4mm QFN (TQP7M9106) surface-mount packages.

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