At the 2014 GSMA Mobile World Congress (MWC) in Barcelona, Spain (24-27 February), RF Micro Devices Inc of Greensboro, NC, USA has announced the addition of multiple new products to its expanding portfolio of antenna control solutions (ACS).
The new products further expand the firm’s family of routing switches, antenna tuners and impedance tuners to support the newest 4G LTE smartphones and tablets. RFMD’s ACS products maximize power transfer to the antenna and optimize radiated efficiency at the antenna, enhancing smartphones by improving battery life, increasing data throughput and extending talk time.
Key new additions to RFMD’s ACS family include the RF1149 routing switch, the RF1141A and RF1107/8/9 antenna tuners, and the RF1155 impedance tuner. The RF1149 is a low on-resistance single-pole quadruple-throw (SP4T) routing switch that helps to improve link quality and data throughput. The RF1141A is a rugged, low-loss single-pole double-throw (SPDT) antenna tuner, and the RF1107/8/9 is a family of programmable tuners optimized for radiated efficiency of all active bands in multi-band LTE mobile devices. The RF1155 is the successor to RFMD’s recently announced RF1105 first-generation impedance tuner. Both the RF1105 and RF1155 optimize power transfer to the antenna, while the RF1155 adds advanced carrier aggregation capabilities.
As frequency bands proliferate, cellular antennas are required to operate over wider bandwidths, greatly increasing demand for ACS solutions, RFMD’s says. According to industry analyst firm Strategy Analytics, the proliferation of multi-band LTE devices is expected to drive phenomenal growth in shipments of antenna tuning components, reaching 1.8 billion units per year by 2018. RFMD says that it has already secured key design wins for its new antenna control solutions in the leading flagship smartphones anticipated in 2014.
