Freescale has announced the introduction of a series of two-stage RF integrated circuits capable of delivering the 100W RF output power required for GSM and EDGE network base stations. When driven by the company's MMG3005N GPA (general-purpose amplifier), the MWE6IC9100N and MW7IC18100N RFICs form a comprehensive 100W power-amplifier solution for wireless base stations operating at 900 and 1800MHz. Previous designs required a separate high-power transistor to achieve the 50dB of gain and the 100W of output power typically required for GSM EDGE transmitters. Now, just one GPA plus a single RFIC combine to meet this requirement. The MWE6IC9100N is designed for both the 869 to 894MHz cellular and 920 to 960MHz GSM bands. Gain is 33.5dB and power-added efficiency is in excess of 52% over the intended operating range. Under a 28V drain bias and 50W average output power in an EDGE application, the MWE6IC9100N addresses the stringent linearity requirements with spectral regrowth of -63dBc and -81dBc at 400kHz and 600kHz, respectively. The MW7IC18100N covers the 1805 to 1880MHz and 1930 to 1990MHz bands. It is designed to deliver an RF output power of 100W with 30dB of gain and power-added efficiency of 48% over the intended operating range when running in a GSM environment at 28V. Both devices are RoHS-compliant and can handle +200°C junction temperatures.
