RF Company: The latest trends and developments in mobile phone RF chips

JasonYoo

RF Company: The latest trends and developments in mobile phone RF chips [Copy link]

Brent Wilkins, Senior Marketing Manager, RF Micro Devices

　　Today's new generation of cellular phones are becoming increasingly complex in design, requiring multi-band and multi-mode support, Bluetooth personal area network, GPS positioning, WLAN and other functions, and ultra-wideband and TV reception functions have begun to appear. In addition, applications such as games, images, audio and video have also become very common in mobile phones.

　　In order to adapt to the multimedia applications of consumers that can send and receive large-capacity data files, RF chips must provide higher data rates. Therefore, the transition from GPRS to EDGE air interface, so that the system based on code division multiple access (TDMA) has a higher data rate, has become one of the development trends.

　　EDGE uses 8-PSK modulation technology and provides double the number of bits, making the data rate higher than any other TDMA-based standard. If the telecom operator has already established a GSM network, the cost of deploying this air interface standard will be very low.

　　Since the RF chip on a mobile phone occupies 30% to 40% of the entire circuit board area, the addition of new functions such as Bluetooth, GPS and WLAN will further increase the occupied space.

　　Transceivers use low-cost plastic package module technology. In order to improve integration and reduce the overall footprint, passive and active components and SAW filters are integrated into the transceiver package, which has become the second development trend. The addition of cameras, Bluetooth, GPS and other high-end mobile phone features that require internal space has promoted this trend. With the continuous development of semiconductor manufacturing processes, the newly developed digital CMOS RF architecture has made monolithic CMOS integration more attractive.

　　The third trend is the development of quad-band mobile phones for the United States/Europe/Asia (US Cellular, E-GSM, DCS, PCS).

　　As 2.5G and 3G mobile phones gradually replace 2G, integrated devices such as RF transceivers, power amplifiers, front-end switches and duplexers will increase.

　　RFMD has launched a quad-band integrated power amplifier module for GSM mobile phones, which combines a power amplifier, an antenna switch, a harmonic filter and a control IC. Earlier this year, it launched a new highly integrated transmission module for quad-band mobile phones.

RF Micro Devices has developed a highly integrated transmit module (TxM) RF3177 for quad-band GSM/GPRS mobile phones. The RF3177 transmit module contains all transmitter functions from the power amplifier (PA) to the mobile phone antenna, including a quad-band PA, integrated power control, pHEMT antenna switch function with four independent receiving ends, and all related filtering, duplexing and control functions.

The RF3177 device is primarily used as the final transmit chain in GSM 850, EGSM 900, DCS and PCS handheld digital cellular devices. The integrated power control function eliminates the need for couplers, detector diodes, power control ASICs and other power control circuits, while providing key advantages to handset manufacturers, such as reduced component count, improved production yields, simplified handset calibration and reduced time to market. The antenna switch function is performed by a pHEMT switch.

　　In addition, the development of UMTS mobile phones and chipsets and the use of digital interfaces between RF circuits and basebands have also become the development direction of the industry. Both POLARIS TOTAL RADIO and POLARIS 2 TOTAL RADIO solutions provide digital and analog interfaces between RF circuits and basebands.