NI and Eta Wireless Collaborate to Accelerate Development of Wideband Digital Envelope Tracking Technology

At the ongoing 2020 International Microwave Symposium (IMS), NI announced its collaboration with Eta Wireless to fully support ETAdvanced, the industry’s first digital envelope tracking (ET) technology for millimeter wave (mmWave) 5G RF front-end devices. Developed by Cambridge-based Eta Wireless, ETAdvanced extends battery life, data rates and connectivity range for smartphones, wearables and IoT devices.

ETAdvanced solves the power efficiency challenge that has long plagued the RF front end, such as the wideband power amplifier (PA) in 5G devices, which wastes a lot of power in the form of heat, thereby significantly shortening battery life. ETAdvanced technology can make full use of the envelope information of the signal and only deliver the power required at the moment, thereby improving the efficiency of the amplifier.

Using NI software-interconnected PXI systems to fully support ETAdvanced technology enables tight synchronization of sophisticated digital edge deployment, broadband 5G New Radio (NR) generation, and millimeter wave vector signal transceiver (VST) analysis. These technologies have helped Eta Wireless achieve a 3x increase in data rate and doubled PA output power, solving the core power and heat dissipation issues of 5G millimeter wave deployment. Under a given power budget, the increase in coverage and throughput makes ETAdvanced technology a key driver for millimeter wave 5G radios.

“At NI, we provide the tools and expertise our customers need to test new ideas and drive Engineer Ambitiously,” said Ritu Favre, general manager of NI’s Semiconductor Business Unit. “Connecting Eta Wireless with the right technology to help solve the biggest challenges in bringing 5G to life is core to our vision to accelerate 5G commercialization.”

“NI’s PXI-based RF and digital signal generation solutions bring out the best of ETAdvanced technology in a lab environment,” said John Hoversten, CTO and founder of Eta Wireless. “NI’s support for digital envelope tracking will help mobile device companies accelerate mmWave deployments and deliver a superior user experience for end users. We are excited to see the front-end ecosystem converge on digital envelope tracking, which will help extend much-needed battery life for mobile users while delivering on the promise of greater connectivity and higher bandwidth that 5G brings.”