Scintera rolls out RFPAL for small cells, remote radio heads

Scintera Networks has recently launched the SC2200 and SC2220 dual-path system-on-chip (SoC) RF Power Amplifier Linearizers (RFPAL). Both devices extend the capability and performance of Scintera's power amplifier (PA) linearisation solutions to further simplify and facilitate the design of multi-antenna and/or multi-band cellular infrastructure systems

The SC2200 supports systems with 20MHz of signal BW and power levels from 250mW (RMS) up to 5W (RMS) at the antenna. Applications include MIMO small cells, distributed antenna systems (DAS), active antenna systems (AAS) and multi-band SISO systems. The SC2220 supports systems with up to 75MHz signal BW and power levels from 2.5W (RMS) up to 60W (RMS) or more at the antenna. Applications include multi-antenna LTE remote radio heads (RRH), small cell MIMO and high power multi-band base stations.

Scintera's cost-effective linearisation solutions have given rise to a new generation of low power Doherty amplifiers that are specifically designed to operate with Scintera's RFPAL. The introduction of the SC2200 now makes linearisation of Class A/AB PAs economically feasible even for systems operating at levels as low as 24dBm (RMS) at the antenna. Low power Doherty PAs and even lower power Class A/AB PAs combined with Scintera's dual-path linearizer delivers unprecedented transmitter efficiency to MIMO small cell base stations, DAS and AAS.

The devices provide additional features beyond linearisation including (per path) integrated pre-amplifier, temperature-compensated gate biasing, triple RF power measurement (RFIN, PAOUT, and Reverse Power) and temperature sensor. In addition, a configurable set of ADCs and DACs may be used to measure the drain current and voltage of the final stage PA and set the appropriate gate bias. The SC2200 and SC2220 are highly flexible and adaptive RFin/RFout solutions supporting Class A/AB or Doherty RF PA designs with an operating frequency from 698MHz to 2700MHz and cellular communication protocols including CDMA/EVDO, TD-SCDMA, WiMAX, WCDMA/HSDPA, LTE and TD-LTE.

The SC2200 and SC2220 are packaged in an 80-pin, 11x11 mm QFN package enabling the implementation of the entire predistortion linearisation solution in as little as 2.5cm² of board space. The compact system solution is easily integrated directly into the most restricted form factors including PA modules.