Hillsboro, Ore. — TriQuint Semiconductor has released the first products in its high-efficiency “green” TriPower family of 3G/4G wireless base station RFICs. Addressing the top two challenges of network operators as a result of rapidly-growing consumer demand for bandwidth-hungry smartphones and similar products, TriPower reduces electricity needed to power network base station amplifiers while it allows operators to more easily increase network capacity and speed.
The two high-efficiency TriPower devices — the TG2H214120 (120W) and TG2H214220 (220W) — are the first in a series of products that will include more frequency bands and power levels in 2010 and beyond.
The TriPower GaAs HV-HBT RFICs reduce operational costs and deliver 55 percent efficiency for 3G/4G base station amplifiers, according to TriQuint. Comparing the efficiency of TriPower to what’s typically deployed today, a TriPower-based network would cut CO2 emissions by about 340 tons each year, which is equivalent to adding more than 130 acres of trees to the ecosystem, says the company.
TriQuint Networks vice president, Brian P. Balut calls TriPower a “game-changing technology.”
“The complex modulation requirements of 3G and 4G networks cannot be delivered efficiently by legacy semiconductor technologies,” Balut said in a statement. “As a leader in both GaAs and GaN (gallium nitride) technology, TriQuint examined the potential for both types of devices in high-power base station applications. We believe that for reasons of reliability, cost and efficiency, TriPower’s GaAs HV-HBT technology is the best choice. Our new TriPower devices provide the greatest reduction in power consumption available on the market today and can enable new, highly-efficient, tower-mounted remote radio head designs.”
Dubbed TriPower due to its high power, high efficiency and high linearity, the TriPower family of high-power transistors is designed using a high-voltage heterojunction bipolar transistor (HV-HBT) gallium arsenide (GaAs) process, which delivers an efficiency improvement while meeting the linearity requirements of 3G/4G cellular systems.
When used in a symmetric Doherty amplifier application for maximum efficiency boost, two TriQuint TG2H214120 120-watt devices can deliver over 60 watts of average WCDMA power with 55 percent efficiency. As a result, operators can place larger amplifiers onto existing cell site towers without a corresponding increase in size or weight, says TriQuint. In addition, higher-power amplifiers, in turn, deliver higher data rates to all users in the cell.
TriQuint’s TriPower device family will be exhibited at the GSMA Mobile World Congress in Barcelona, Spain, February 15-18, 2010.