Addressing the energy and spectral efficiency of 5G
WUPATEC will be at IMS 2024 showing our latest wideband GaN Doherty PA together with AMD Zynq RFSoC DFE and DPD capabilities.
Mobile network operators are constantly looking to improve the energy and spectral efficiency of their 5G networks, and the power amplifier is one of the biggest challenges. The RF power amplifier consumes between 50 and 80% of the energy in the radio, and it is very difficult for it to be broadband, efficient and easily linearized.
To meet this need Wupatec develops a new family of wideband GaN Doherty power amplifiers with excellent performance in the main FR1 telecom bands, as the two examples below.
The first demonstration shows a 2-stage 8W average high-efficiency power amplifier operating in C band. This Doherty power amplifier using commercial GaN on SiC devices from Qorvo covers 3.7 to 4.2 GHz, with 47.5 dBm peak power, 30 dB of linear gain, PAE higher than 42 % @8dB OBO and high linearity <-55 dBc ACLR with DPD and 5G NR one carrier of 100MHz. The instantaneous bandwidth reaches almost the 500MHz of the RF frequency band.
In collaboration with AMD this demonstration uses the latest Zynq™ UltraScale+™ RFSoC DFE (evaluation board ZCU670) together with AMD’s latest DPD and CFR IP. With Wupatec’s firmware, the RFSoC DFE is controlled using IQSTAR software from AMCAD Engineering which allows a comprehensive characterization of the RF power amplifier in an environment close to the final implementation of the radio unit.
DEMONSTRATION
A wideband two stage 8W 500MHz iBW GaN PA Design
Commercial GaN on SiC devices covering 3.7 to 4.2 GHz
47.5 dBm peak power with 30 dB of linear gain
PAE higher than 42%
@8dB OBO
Test Case 1
Carrier aggregation
280 MHz IBW
Test signal: OFDM100 2C 280MHz (8dB PAPR)
- Pout avg = 39.5 dBm
- Gain = 30 dB
- PAE > 40 %
- ACPR < -51 dBc
Test Case 2
Carrier aggregation
400 MHz IBW
Test signal: 5GNR 100 4C 400MHz (8dB PAPR)
- Pout avg = 39.5 dBm
- Gain = 30 dB
- PAE > 40 %
- ACPR < -48 dBc
Test Case 3
Carrier aggregation
500 MHz IBW
Test signal: 5GNR 100 2C 500MHz (8dB PAPR)
- Pout avg = 39.5 dBm
- Gain = 30 dB
- PAE > 40 %
- ACPR < -47 dBc
The second demonstration highlights a 2.3 to 2.7 GHz 8W average power amplifier covering 2.3 to 2.7 GHz. This PA is tested with the AMCAD IQ6400 Vector Signal Transceiver controlled using IQSTAR software and with Wupatec’s DPD embedded in the hardware.
- 2.3 to 2.7 GHz 8W GaN PA Design
- Commercial GaN on SiC devices
- 47.5 dBm peak power
- 45% PAE
Test Case 1
One 5G 100MHz carrier
Test signal: 5G-NR 1C 100MHz (8dB PAPR)
- Pout avg= 39.5dBm
- Gain = 15 dB
- PAE = 45%
- ACPR < -54 dBc
Test Case 2
Carrier aggregation
3 LTE 20MHz carriers
Test signal: LTE20 3C 60MHz (8dB PAPR)
- Pout avg = 39.5dBm
- Gain = 15 dB
- PAE = 45%
- ACPR < -50 dBc
Test Case 3
Carrier aggregation
5 LTE 20MHz carriers
Test signal: LTE20 5C 100MHz (8dB PAPR)
- Pout avg = 39.5dBm
- Gain = 15 dB
- PAE = 45%
- ACPR < -51 dBc
These demonstrations highlights the performances of Wupatec new family of RF power amplifier. These solutions can scale to address a wide range of use cases, either for an operator to deploy carriers or instantaneous bandwidth over a wide range of frequencies. The solution delivers a lot of flexibility in the deployment without compromise on the efficiency or linearity. For example, the wide instantaneous BW can address MORAN use cases where two operators can be supported by the same RU.
