RF&WirelessBlog

TI unveils ‘industry’s fastest’ AFE for femtocells

TI says its latest analogue front end (AFE) for femtocells and portable software-defined radios (SDR) is the industry’s fastest. The low-power, 12-bit AFE7225 integrates a dual 125-MSPS analogue-to-digital converter (ADC) and dual 250-MSPS digital-to-analogue converter (DAC). The company says it  operates 25% faster than the competing devices, while increasing the signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) by 2 dB and providing up to five times the DAC output current.

Ubidyne to show active antenna system for 700MHz LTE at Mobile Word Congress

Ubidyne has announced that it will be featuring a new active antenna solution for the US LTE 700MHz digital dividend band at next month's Mobile World Congress 2012 in Barcelona. The uB700 Antenna Embedded Radio with flexible beam forming and tilting capabilities has just completed independent network trials with a leading US mobile operator, reportedly delivering double throughput at the cell edge and an increase of over 40% cell capacity with the same output power. Ubidyne says these results show that operators can use active antenna technology to address the exploding demand for wireless data by maximising coverage and capacity from their existing macrocells before they need to invest in small cells.

In addition to the new uB700, Ubidyne's uB900 Antenna Embedded Radio supports GSM, UMTS and LTE in the 900MHz frequency band to address mobile networks in Europe, Africa, Oceania, Asia and the Middle East. Future products are also in development for the European digital dividend bands of 800MHz and highband up to 2.6GHz as well as multi-band solutions.

By removing the need for bulky coaxial feeder cables, remote electrical tilt assemblies and additional amplifiers on antenna towers and masts, Ubidyne says that its active antenna technology significantly reduces installation costs and energy consumption while improving radio performance, deployment flexibility, coverage and network capacity. OPEX costs and outages are further reduced by a self-healing mechanism that secures antenna coverage in the event of a system failure.

"The US trials show that active antennas can significantly increase cell capacity using vertical sectorisation and double the uplink throughput at the cell edge as well as increase the coverage area with independent uplink and downlink tilting," said Michael Fränkle, CEO of Ubidyne. "Active antenna technology offers end users a continuous service, while operators will save both CAPEX and OPEX costs; we have the potential to dramatically change the radio architecture and operations of mobile communications without migrating to small cells at tremendous cost. Active antennas have arrived and we are seeing increasing interest and demand from operators around the world."

Picochip achieves first silicon with Synopsis Lynx Design System

Picochip, using Synopsis’ Lynx Design System and Galaxy Implementation platform, has successfully achieved first silicon in the design of its next-generation 40nm PC3008 picoXcell femtocell chip. According to Synopsis, the Lynx Design System enabled Picochip’s engineering team to upgrade to a pre-tested 40nm Galaxy-based production design flow, saving time and effort compared to developing their own flow. In addition, Lynx’s Foundry-Ready System enabled Picochip’s engineers to begin design work within two weeks of initial deployment, accelerating their project start date by an estimated eight weeks.

BREAKING NEWS: Picochip to be acquired by Mindspeed for $51.8m

Mindspeed Technologies is set to acquire Picochip for $51.8 million, plus a potential earnout payment of up to $25 million payable in the first calendar quarter of 2013. The transaction has been approved by Mindspeed’s and Picochip’s boards of directors and is subject to certain closing conditions. The transaction is expected to close in the first calendar quarter of 2012.

ip.access unveils ‘femtocell of the future’

UK-based small cell manufacturer ip.access has unveiled a working concept design of the ‘femtocell of the future’. About the size of an iPhone, the 'Advanced Femtocell Concept' (AFC) showcases a number of new features that add to the usability, portability and desirability of a femtocell in the home, office or even on the move.

Picochip debuts newest femtocell SoCs with faster host, new security and lower power

Picochip has launched its next generation of public access and enterprise silicon, the PC3024 for enterprise use and the PC3032 for metro and rural small cells. Picochip says the new devices are the first small cell optimised SoC silicon products in 40nm process node. Both the PC3024 and PC3032 offer improved performance from a 1GHz ARM11 processor and by continuing to use Picochip’s field-proven PHY and software, the new devices can easily be migrated to with minimal cost or risk, according to the company.

Tektelic and Picochip collaborate on small cell LTE devices

Picochip and Tektelic are collaborating on a phased development of a new small cell LTE micro eNodeB platform. The collaboration will incorporate Picochip’s fully featured LTE development system for small cells, the PC9608, into a real world, carrier-class device ready for deployment that will deliver the highest output power in a tiny form factor.

Joint solution enables high-performance LTE femtos

At 4G World, Aricent and Picochip announced the launch of a joint LTE eNodeB reference framework. The carrier-class product is a complete solution design, from RF interface through to S1 and X2 interfaces and includes Aricent base station software stacks integrated with Picochip baseband and silicon. Rigorously tested for functionality and performance, the base station solution is designed to help telecom equipment manufacturers (TEMs) deliver high-performance base stations in multiple form factors, including femto, pico, metro and micro-cell configurations and is available for both LTE FDD and TD-LTE variants.

First public demo of Cavium’s base station-on-a-chip

Cavium is set to demonstrate its Octeon Fusion small cell base station on a chip technology in public for the first time later this week at the 4G World 2011 conference (October 25-27 in Chicago).

ip.access launches 3G C-class consumer femtocell

ip.access announced a new C8 consumer femtocell access point at its European User Group conference last week. The new 3G residential small cell can provide strong 3G signal for up to eight phones simultaneously within a home or home office.