Cambridge, UK. Plextek RFI, a UK design house specializing in microwave and millimeter-wave IC design, has announced that it has developed a multichip module (MCM) to cover the recently designated European Pioneer Band for millimeter-wave (mmWave) 5G around 26 GHz. The development of the front-end module (FEM) was carried out in collaboration with Filtronic Broadband.
The FEM comprises a GaAs low-noise amplifier (LNA), power amplifier (PA), and transmit/receive switch housed in a custom laminate surface-mount (SMT) package measuring 10 mm x 10 mm. The receive path gain is 20 dB across the full band, with a noise figure of 3.5 dB. Transmit path gain is 19 dB, and the output-referred third-order intermodulation point (IP3) is +36 dBm. Low-loss RF filtering has been integrated into the package structure, with a bandpass filter after the LNA and a harmonic-rejection filter after the PA. Insertion-loss figures are 0.7 dB for the bandpass filter and 0.2 dB for the harmonic rejection filter.
“This development has demonstrated that we can overcome the manufacturing challenges of integrating filters along with multiple die into an SMT package,” said Mike Weaver, managing director of Filtronic Broadband. “This is not easy at mmWave frequencies, and will give us a crucial head start towards eventual production when the market demand for 5G components at 26 GHz begins to ramp up.”