Long Term Evolution to 5G
Since the launch of the first commercial LTE network, 4G has been gaining momentum rapidly as commercial deployment expands globally and in China. LTE has inherited many of the challenges faced by 3G FDD and TDD transceivers, but added agility in channel bandwidth and carrier frequency into play. The technology continues to evolve as LTE-Advanced (3GPP Rel-10/11/12) and LTE-Advanced Pro (3GPP Rel-13/14), and heads to a unified 5G air interface (3GPP Rel-15 and later). To achieve gigabit class throughput, LTE-Advanced Pro includes massive carrier aggregation (CA) and MIMO, an expanded frequency spectrum to 3.5 GHz and unlicensed 5-6 GHz bands, as well as modulation up to 256-QAM in downlink and 64-QAM in uplink, among other enhancements.
ACP’s 4G Portfolio
Depending on the throughput in downlink/uplink, distinct 3GPP UE categories are defined. ACP’s 4G mobile broadband RF transceiver portfolio starts at LTE cat-4 and reaches up to the LTE-Advanced Pro categories. 2G or 3G fallback capability for voice and data is common to all of ACP’s 4G mobile broadband RF transceivers. Different products cater to different BBIC interfaces such as analog I/Q, digital parallel I/Q, and DigRF v4.
Product Highlight: LTE Category 4 Transceiver
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ACP’s IRIS412 is a single-chip multi-mode 2G, WCDMA/HSPA, TD-SCDMA/HSPA, and LTE category 4 RF transceiver. It enables a unique SAW-less configuration on many RF inputs and outputs to remove both the cost and loss of SAW filters. Towards the BBIC, digital I/Q samples and control messages are exchanged on a DigRF v4 serial interface, maintaining a clean, low pin count connection to the BBIC. |
Product Highlight: LTE-Advanced Pro Category 10 Transceiver
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ACP’s IRIS423 is a single-chip carrier aggregation RF transceiver for up to LTE-Advanced Pro category 10. Beyond LTE-Advanced, it also caters to DC-HSPA and 5-mode 4G/3G/2G applications. RF inputs are common to the primary and secondary receiver, resulting in a small-footprint RF sub-system. Arbitrary carriers can be aggregated in inter-band or intra-band configuration. |
Product Highlight: LTE-Advanced Pro Category 12 Transceiver
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ACP’s IRIS424 is a single-chip carrier aggregation and MIMO RF transceiver for up to LTE-Advanced Pro category 12. All LTE frequency bands defined by 3GPP in the 0.45-6 GHz range are supported. This covers the 3.4-3.8 GHz bands or the unlicensed bands at 5-6 GHz. Carrier aggregation and MIMO are available in both down- and uplink. As such, IRIS424 aims at a very wide variety of mobile broadband applications, including C-V2X, DC-HSPA, and 5-mode 4G/3G/2G. |
For more information and further 4G mobile broadband products and beyond, please contact us.