Ralink tips low power, 'smallest' 802.11n chips

Ralink Technology Corp. has released new 802.11n single chips, the RT3080 that enables Wi-Fi in handheld/mobile devices and the RT3070, claimed to be the smallest 802.11n USB single chip for PCs, AP/routers and client devices.

The RT3080 features on-chip gain selectable LNA with optimized noise figure for high sensitivity, on-chip LDO regulators that supply a single battery in SDIO mode and reduce power consumption by supporting adaptive transmit output power and power amplifier bias control. The chip draws only 300mW power at full speed receiving mode. These key features facilitate efficient Wi-Fi enabled mobile devices with power level and price point that can drive the mass adoption of Wi-Fi in personal media players, smart phones, digital still cameras, gaming and other portable consumer devices.

The RT3080 also includes substantial RBOM integration on the chip, with LNA and power management. The chip has options in flip chip or QFN 76-pin packages to satisfy a wide array of application design requirements such as system in package modules and is optimized for Bluetooth coexistence. The reference design kit includes complete, turnkey mobile Wi-Fi solutions including software driver support for the Microsoft Windows Embedded CE 6.0 enabling ease-of-design and fast time-to-market.

"The new RT3080 addresses the thriving mobile Wi-Fi market, the fastest growing Wi-Fi segment. This market demands increasingly small form-factors and ultra low power consumption," said Rick Jeng, president of Ralink. "The RT3080 meets these challenges and further adds the performance of 802.11n, setting a new precedence for mobile Wi-Fi."

Meanwhile, the RT3070 is touted to be the smallest 802.11n USB single chip with a tiny 9mm x 9mm QFN 76-pin. The high integration and low-cost digital CMOS design makes this chip suitable for the next generation of consumer electronics, broadband and PC desktop WLAN solutions.

The RT3070 solution features high throughput and extended range for single antenna and the reference design kit includes complete, turnkey Wi-Fi solutions including software driver support for Microsoft "Windows Vista, XP, 2K, Mac OS X and Linux.

The USB client is the highest volume 802.11 adapter in the market, and this chip enables our customers to build USB clients with a reduced RBOM and at nearly half the size," says Jeng.

Both the RT3080 and RT3070 single-chip solutions are available in 2.4GHz single band frequency and support security with WPA, WPA2, Wi-Fi Protected Set-Up and QoS (802.11e and WMM) which offer a rich feature set to support voice and video.

The RT3080 and RT3070 are currently being sampled by early access customers.