Analog Devices has launched a highly integrated microwave upconverter (ADMV1013) and downconverter (ADMV1014). These ICs operate over a very wide frequency range with a 50 Ohm-match from 24 GHz up to 44 GHz, facilitating ease of design and reduction in the costs of building a single platform that can cover all 5G mm-Wave frequency bands including 28 GHz and 39 GHz.
The chipsets are capable of flat 1 GHz RF instantaneous bandwidth supporting all broadband services as well as other ultra-wide bandwidth transceiver applications. Each upconverter and downconverter is highly integrated, comprising of I (in-phase) and Q (quadrature-phase) mixers with an on-chip programmable quadrature phase-shifter configurable for direct conversion to/from baseband (operable from DC to 6 GHz) or to an IF (operable from 800 MHz to 6 GHz). Also included on-chip are voltage variable attenuators, transmit PA driver (in the upconverter) and a receive LNA (in the downconverter), LO buffers with x4 frequency multiplier and programmable tracking filters.
Most programmability functions are controlled via an SPI serial interface. Through this port, these chips also provide a unique capability for each upconverter and downconverter to correct its respective quadrature phase imbalance, hence the usually difficult to suppress sideband emission can be improved from a typical value of 32 dBc, by 10 dB or more. This results in an unmatched level of microwave radio performance. The combination of features provides unprecedented flexibility and ease of use while minimizing external components, enabling implementation of small form factor systems such as small cells.
The highly integrated ADMV1013 microwave upconverter and the ADMV1014 microwave downconverter are ideally suited for the microwave radio platforms that operate in the emerging 28 GHz and 39 GHz 5G wireless infrastructure bands. The converters’ 1GHz bandwidth capability, along with the upconverter’s OIP3 of more than 20 dBm that supports stringent modulation schemes such as 1024QAM, are necessary to enable multi-Gigabit wireless data. Moreover, the chipset benefits other applications such as satellite and earth station broadband communication links, aircraft radios, RF test equipment, and radar systems. Their superb linearity and image rejection performance are particularly compelling for improved range of microwave transceivers.
The ADMV1013 is offered in a 40-pin, 6 x 6 mm LGA, and the ADMV1014 is in a 32-pin, 5 x 5 mm LGA package. Samples and production quantities are available immediately.
