New ¼W linear PAs targeting automotive and 5G infrastructure

Guerrilla RF, Inc offers the formal release of the GRF5526, GRF5526W, GRF5536 and GRF5536W, the latest in a series of ¼W linear power amplifiers. These InGaP HBT amplifiers were developed especially for 5G wireless infrastructure applications needing outstanding native linearity over large 100MHz bandwidths and temperature extremes of -40C to 105C.

Spanning frequency ranges of 2.3–2.7GHz and 3.3-4.2GHz respectively, the devices are tuned to operate within the n7, n30, n38, n40, n41, n48, n53, n77, n88 and n90 5G NR bands. The devices typically deliver 23dBm of linear power over the entire -40C to 105C temperature range while maintaining ACLR levels of better than -45dBc and EVM levels < 1% – all without the assistance of supplemental linearisation schemes like DPD.

The ability to defeat the -45dBc ACLR performance metric without DPD is crucial for cellular applications such as home and commercial repeaters/boosters, femtocells, and picocells, and cable loss compensators which are utilised in conjunction with automotive ‘shark fin’ antennas. In each use case, the sensitivity to cost, power and size constraints prohibits elaborate linearisation techniques like DPD. Instead, designers must rely on the power amplifier’s native linearity to satisfy the stringent emissions mask necessities imposed by the latest 5G standards.

“The GRF5526 and GRF5536 are strategic additions to our previous released ¼W PAs,” says Jim Ahne, Guerrilla RF’s VP of Automotive and 5G Products. “With their formal introduction, we now have a complete suite of commercially available linear PAs addressing all bands targeted by our 5G and automotive customer base. The GRF5536 variants are particularly noteworthy since they capitalise on the growing popularity of the C-band – what many in the industry hail as the most attractive spectrum for 5G applications due to its ideal blend of propagation coverage and available bandwidth.”

“The new -W variants within this family are also critical additions for our automotive business,” continues Ahne. “Select variants of the GRF55xx family – including the GRF5526W and GRF5536W – are being qualified for full AEC-Q100 compliance. By the end of the summer, Guerrilla RF will have introduced multiple -W variants of its linear PAs in support of a major contract it won back in November.”

The devices come in pin-compatible 3mm x 3mm, 16-pin QFN packages.