New RF converter platform expands call capacity and data throughput for wireless carriers

Analog Devices has launched a mixed-signal front-end (MxFE) RF data converter platform that consolidates high-performance analog and digital signal processing for a variety of wireless equipment such as 4G LTE and 5G mmWave radios. The company’s new AD9081/2 MxFE platform enables manufacturers to fit multiband radios in the same space as single-band radios, which triples call capacity offered in current 4G LTE base stations. With a 1.2GHz channel bandwidth, the new platform also allows wireless carriers that are adding further antennas to their cell towers to satisfy the higher radio density and data-rate demands of emerging mmWave 5G.

By moving more of the frequency translation and filtering from the analog to the digital domain, the device gives designers the software configurability to customise their radios. The new multi-channel platform satisfies the requirements of other wide-bandwidth applications in 5G test and measurement equipment, broadband cable video streaming, multi-antenna phased array radar systems and low-earth-orbit satellite networks.