The real world problem
A world leading company in the development and manufacture of innovative wired and wireless networking products wanted to realize a software defined WIMAX transceiver that could be deployed around the world and connect to the locally licensed spectrum so that it could offer a true mobile internet experience for internet users on the go. To enable this they needed a flexible but low power radio front end that would allow them fully take advantage of all the options that the WiMAX standard provides at a consumer price level.
The solution
AnSem developed for this customer a radio frequency front-end chip containing zero IF, quadrature RX path including wideband LNA and TX path including wideband PA. The device supports a broad, fully programmable RF frequency range between 700MHz and 4GHz, encompassing all licensed commercial spectrum around the globe. A VCO had to be designed with a wide tuning range of 3GHz to 6GHz while complying with tight phase noise characteristics. Furthermore the bandwidth of the radio can be programmed by reconfiguring the fully integrated filters. On chip filter calibration keeps the cut-off frequency constant over all working conditions. To keep within the cost target AnSem was able to design the device in low cost 0.13µm CMOS without making any compromises on the performance.
Result for the customer
The AnSem chip allowed our customer to enter the WiMAX market with a world radio at the price of a consumer product. Thanks to the low power consumption, it also could be used in portable devices and drive the growth of the mobile internet.
- Applications
- WiMAX
- Cognitive radio
Key technical statistics
- RX noise figure of 4.5 dB at 700 MHz and 6 dB at 2.4 GHz
- Embedded PPA delivering up to -10 dBm linear average output power (WiMAX OFDM 64 QAM)
- MiMo ready
