Demo for full RF and digital front-end design for 5G active antenna systems

Renesas Electronics Corporation plans to showcase a full RF front end solution for 5G Active Antenna Systems (AAS) radios in collaboration with AMD. Paired with the field-proven AMD Zynq UltraScale+ RFSoC Digital Front End O-RU Reference Design, the RF front end comprises RF switches, low-noise amplifiers and pre-drivers. It provides a complete solution to fulfil the demand of the growing mobile network infrastructure market.

The new 5G design platform combines all the necessary RF and digital front-end hardware for base stations operating in the O-RAN ecosystem. This includes a high-isolation multi-throw Digital Pre-Distortion switch, a high-gain and linearity pre-driver in a compact package, an integrated switch and LNA with input signal coupling functionality. This full RF front end platform is created to efficiently process and transmit data to wireless networks with optimised power levels. Furthermore, it has been incorporated with the AMD RFSoC DFE ZCU670 Evaluation Kit for quick prototyping and rapid development of wireless network systems. The platform delivers superior RF performance while minimising DPD resources for TX channel linearisation, improving radio efficiency and ultimately lowering operating costs for wireless network providers.

"We are thrilled to be collaborating with AMD once again to demonstrate our latest RF capabilities at the upcoming Mobile World Congress," said Naveen Yanduru, vice president of RF Engineering at Renesas' Infrastructure Business Division. "Using our turnkey hardware solution, developers of 5G RF wireless infrastructure systems can reduce development time and cost. We are confident that this solution will set a new standard in RF performance and efficiency for the wireless communication market."

"The RFMC expansion connectors on the ZCU670 evaluation board allow our customers to quickly prototype and evaluate a complete RF lineup design for their Radio. To demonstrate, we have collaborated with Renesas again to develop an optimised RF Front End reference design targeting the N78 band," said Brendan Farley, corporate vice president of Wireless Engineering at AMD. "As the market for O-RU continues to grow, these reference designs will help accelerate our mutual customers' time to market with proven solutions."

The reference platform will be demonstrated at the AMD booth at Mobile World Congress, #2M61 Hall 2, 27 February-2 March 2023.