Eridan launches the world's first fully digital 5G radio
Backed by a $7M investment led by Social Capital, Eridan's extremely precise signal generation provides a solution for the United States' 5G spectrum crunch
MOUNTAIN VIEW, Calif., Feb. 19, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- Eridan today announced the launch of their MIRACLE Power Transceiver, the world's first digital sampling radio for 4G, 5G, and beyond. Eridan's fully digital wireless signal generation enables twice as much data to be sent in the same bandwidth, reduces interference with neighboring bands, and consumes 5-10x less power to transmit the same amount of data.
The MIRACLE Power Transceiver produces sub-6GHz cellular signals at full transmit power, eliminating the need for linear amplifiers. These traditional linear power amplifiers are among the most power-hungry components of a 5G radio, and the biggest sources of noise.
"Right now, every cellular network in the world depends on power amplifiers, which are a linear technology. Trying to use a linear technology to handle digital information is always inefficient – it's why we don't use vacuum tubes in our computers any more," said Doug Kirkpatrick, CEO of Eridan.
In the United States, a lack of sub-6GHz spectrum has pushed much of the 5G deployment into millimeter waves, which provide higher bandwidth, but don't travel though obstacles like walls or foliage. Eridan's digital sampling radios can deliver data rates in existing cellular bands that are on par with millimeter waves. And because Eridan's radios bleed very little noise into neighboring frequencies, spectrum owners can decrease the size of so-called "guard bands" and use more of their spectrum for sending and receiving data.
"The underlying physics of wireless transmission suggest that spectrum should be an abundant resource, but markets today assume that it is scarce. Social Capital was looking for an investment that would upend this dynamic, and found Eridan," said Jay Zaveri, Partner at Social Capital. "We believe Eridan can lower the cost of wireless connectivity by orders of magnitude, by shrinking both the power and spectrum inputs required."
As the United States looks beyond 5G to Next-G and dynamic spectrum allocation, Eridan's tuning range – currently covering 600-3700MHz – and millisecond-level frequency switching, could ultimately grow existing sub-6GHz capacity by 50-100x.
The company expects early adoption to come primarily from the small cell market. "While mobile operators are excited about our ability to send more data in the same bandwidth, the biggest adoption driver is our power efficiency," said Doug Kirkpatrick, CEO. "Because we send out more power as radio waves and less as waste heat, we dramatically shrink the size and weight of small cells and take out about 75% of the installation costs and many of the permitting hassles."
The company is currently selling Developer Kits, which allow potential customers to evaluate the capability of this new technology, and expects first production units to be available in early 2021.
For more information, visit https://eridan.io
SOURCE Eridan
Share this article