ADI's broadband RFIC achieves major technological breakthrough, greatly simplifying design

With the coexistence of multiple standards in China, RF devices need to meet the needs of multiple frequency bands. At present, the RF of mobile terminals has begun to move towards partial integration, and highly integrated transceivers and power amplifiers supporting multiple frequencies have been put into commercial use, greatly reducing the BOM of the terminal and also reducing costs.

However, on the infrastructure side, due to the great technical difficulty in supporting broadband RFIC, such as the need to solve problems such as interference between different frequencies, single-band, separate RFICs are still the main focus. From detectors, mixers, amplifiers to phase-locked loops/synthesizers, these major RF ICs still mainly support single frequency, which brings huge challenges to the design of infrastructure and the inventory management of components, and the cost is also very high.

As a leading supplier in the RFIC field, ADI has been committed to the research and development of broadband RFIC. Recently, they finally released a number of broadband RFIC products, which will be a revolutionary breakthrough in the RFIC field. "ADI is the only company that provides products that can cover the entire RF signal. We are also the first company to develop a broadband RFIC that covers all frequency applications <6GHz with a single IC." Peter Real, vice president of the RF and Network Division of ADI, said, "Broadband RFIC is of great significance to the industry. Since one RFIC can be used for all wireless standards and technologies <6GHz, it can greatly shorten the design time and component evaluation time, reduce the number of components, reduce the size of the circuit board, and save material costs. It will also greatly reduce the number of component inventory." He explained, "Because customers can use one RFIC solution to meet different needs. And, although the material cost and the number of components are reduced, the performance will not be sacrificed."

This time, ADI brought four broadband RFIC products to the industry, including the broadband ADF4350 synthesizer, the broadband ADL5604 1W broadband driver amplifier, the broadband ADL5902 detector and the broadband ADL580x high IP3 active mixer.

The broadband ADF4350 synthesizer has on-chip PLL and VCO functions, supports a bandwidth of 137.5MHz-4.4GHz, supports fractional N division and integer N division modes, and its flexible dual input stage has output power control function. "The most critical point of this broadband RFIC is to solve the frequency interference problem of the three built-in VCOs." Peter Real explained, "The user defines the frequency he wants to choose, and the chip executes the user's selected frequency through programmable execution." This synthesizer supports all 2G and 3G systems. Its flexible output stage can drive active and passive mixers (differential or single-ended)-no buffer amplifier is required, thus saving the number of components and circuit board area. This chip has been mass-produced.

The ADL5902 detector can support frequencies from 100MHz to 9GHz and has a high performance of 60dB TruPwr. "It is a RMS to DC detector with the highest operating frequency and a high-precision RMS to DC detector," said Peter Real. The chip has a single-ended RF input and can operate at a high temperature of 125 degrees. "Among them, the most accurate dB linear output eliminates the need for calibration."

The ADL580x high IP3 active mixer supports a dynamic frequency range of 10MHz to 6GHz. It is divided into two models: one is the ADL5801, which has a built-in integrated detector; the other is the ADL5802, which is a dual-channel active mixer. "Compared to passive mixers, active mixers can reduce system power consumption." Peter explained. These two devices will further improve the integration level in the case of wide frequency. The adjustable bias function enables customers to obtain balance and power consumption flexibility.

The 1W broadband driver ADL5604 can support 400MHz-2700MHz bandwidth, single low power consumption can reach 1W RF drive, quiescent current is only 325mA, ESD rated voltage is +_1kV. All three devices are available for sampling.

Peter Real pointed out that although multiple separate RF devices have been integrated into an RF transceiver IC on handheld terminals, the infrastructure still requires the separate RF ICs to work together. ADI's contribution is that each separate RFIC no longer needs to be designed according to frequency, thereby greatly simplifying the design. This will bring wireless technology to a new level.