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RFICs provide beamforming and frequency conversion

By Martin Rowe | February 3, 2022

pSemi’s integrated portfolio of 5G mmWave products offers individual ICs as well as an antenna-integrated module.

A series of mmWave beamformers and up/down converters from pSemi provide the RF front end for repeaters, small cells, and indoor base stations.

Beamforming at mmWave frequencies continues to take on importance, targeting signals at mobile devices. A series of beamforming and up/down converters from pSemi cover the n257, n258 and n260 bands support eight antennas with a power amplifier (PA), and low-noise amplifier (LNA), and RF switches for each.

Part number mmWave band Frequency range (GHz)
PE188100 24.25 to 26.75 n258
PE188200 26.5 to 29.5 n257
PE188300 37 to 40 n260

All parts support on-chip memory for 512 sets of 8-channel beamforming coefficients. You can allocate the coefficients in any way between RX and Tx. All parts also support 6-bit phase and 6-bit attenuation control. They also provide a high linear POUT with CP-OFDM 64 QAM modulation and 50 Ω input and output impedance.

pSemi functional diagram

Functional block diagram of the PE188100 and PE188200

The PE128300 dual-channel up/down converter covers the n258 and n257 bands. It supports up to 16 mode definitions that are pre-stored and selectable from a single-byte SPI command. Mode definitions contain the following elements:

  • LO power on/off
  • V/H RX power on/off
  • V/H TX power on/off
  • V/H T/R switch state

Typical modes used are TX, RX, idle, sleep, and loopback.


Filed Under: 5G, mm Wave, mmWave, up/down converters

 

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