Anokiwave Inc of San Diego, CA, USA, a provider of highly integrated silicon core chips and III-V front-end integrated circuits for emerging millimeter-wave (mmW) and active electronically scanned array (AESA) markets, has announced the worldwide release of the second IC in a family of X-band silicon radar quad core IC solutions for commercial radar and 5G communications markets.
The AWS-0101 is an integrated 4-channel beamformer, low-noise amplifier (LNA) and power amplifier (PA). It supports four radiating elements with dual-beam Rx, single-beam Tx, and includes 6-bit phase and 6-bit gain control. The IC provides a low noise figure in Rx mode, allowing for a complete silicon RF solution for commercial AESA systems. Additional features include gain compensation over temperature, temperature reporting, forward power telemetry with programmable delay power sampling, and fast beam switching using on-chip beam weight storage registers that can be accessed via direct address lines. Silicon technology enables very high integration of functionality, enabling planar antenna design at X-band with reduced system size, weight and cost.
The AWS-0101 is a highly integrated TDD (time-division duplex) transmit-receive chip in a commercial QFN-style surface-mount plastic package with dimensions of 7mm x 7mm x 0.9mm, easily fitting within the typical 15mm lattice spacing at 10GHz. The IC is controlled though a 5-wire serial-to-parallel interface (SPI) bus.
"Commercial AESAs are the future of radar and 5G systems and an all-silicon solution will enable the market to transition from expensive traditional military AESA technology to a commercial arena that requires very low cost," says CEO Robert Donahue. "These parts will set a new paradigm in the industry for commercial AESAs," he believes.
Anokiwave offers innovator kits and evaluation kits for early access to the technology. The kits include boards with the AWS-0101 device, USB-SPI Interface module with drivers, and all required cables. Pilot production deliveries are available in first-quarter 2016.
