RF Micro Devices Inc of Greensboro, NC, USA has expanded its portfolio of antenna control solutions by unveiling its first impedance tuner.
The programmable RF1105 functions as a tuner sub-system across all LTE frequency bands up to 2.7GHz, providing antenna feed matching over a wide frequency range. This simplifies antenna design and enables smartphone and mobile device OEMs to optimize antenna power and sensitivity while also maximizing battery life, says RFMD.
As frequency bands proliferate, cellular antennas are required to operate over wider bandwidths, greatly increasing the need for impedance tuners, adds the company. 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.
Due to its unique topology, the RF1105 offers broad symmetric tuner gain and linear performance for optimal power transfer to the antenna, improving total system efficiency, even under the most adverse operating conditions in multi-band LTE and HSPA+ applications, claims RFMD.
The new impedance tuners provide the programmability and efficiency needed to simplify and accelerate antenna design in smartphones and tablets, says Eric Creviston, president of RFMD's Cellular Products Group. "The RF1105 is capable of matching almost any antenna impedance," he adds. "As a result, the RF1105 is already included on several leading mobile reference designs."
Like RFMD's antenna tuners, its impedance tuners improve RF system efficiency between the transceiver and the antenna element. While the firm's antenna tuners optimize radiated efficiency by adjusting or tuning an antenna's resonant frequency, the impedance tuners optimize power transfer to the antenna. Both are part of RFMD's portfolio of antenna control solutions, which also includes high-performance routing switches that optimize antenna selection and control and enhance cellular data throughput rates.
RFMD says that its impedance tuners provide a dynamic matching environment and can be programmed to offer optimal performance across multiple conditions and usage cases. With the RF1105, smartphone OEMs can design antennas for optimal radiated efficiency while also reducing the potential tradeoffs associated with fixed matching components, the firm claims.
The device is sampling now with lead customers, and volume production is expected to begin in first-quarter 2014.
