Scintera Announces Highly Integrated Dual-Path RF Predistortion Linearizers Targeting Small Cells and Remote Radio Heads

SUNNYVALE, Calif., May 29, 2013 /PRNewswire/ -- Scintera Networks, Inc., a leading provider of mixed signal semiconductors for wireless communications, today announced the availability of the SC2200 and SC2220 dual-path system-on-chip (SoC) RF Power Amplifier Linearizers (RFPAL). Based on broadly adopted and field-proven technology, the SC2200 and SC2220 extend the capability and performance of Scintera's power amplifier (PA) linearization 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 linearization 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 linearization 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.

"By integrating two independent linearization paths into one compact SoC, the SC2200 and SC2220 continue to drive down the cost of multi-antenna and multi-band cellular systems that demand high efficiency and excellent linearity in lower output power cellular applications like operator-managed indoor small cells," said Davin Lee, chief executive officer of Scintera. "Small cells have struggled with achieving low power consumption in a very small form factor. These new products specifically address applications where multiple linearizers are required including LTE MIMO, systems with multiple frequency bands and where arrays of transmitters need to achieve high efficiency and linearity. The SC2200 and SC2220 will play a key role in the deployment of small cells by enabling lighter and lower volume enclosures, the use of Power over Ethernet (PoE) through low power consumption and fast time to market by simplifying designs. All these benefits can be accomplished using our latest family of dual-path linearizers at compelling price points."

The SC2200 and SC2220 provide additional features beyond linearization 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 698 MHz to 2700 MHz 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, 11 mm x 11 mm QFN package enabling the implementation of the entire predistortion linearization solution in as little as 2.5 cm² of board space. The compact system solution is easily integrated directly into the most restricted form factors including PA modules.

International Microwave Symposium (IMS2013)
Scintera will be introducing their latest dual-path RFPALs (SC2200 and SC2220) at the International Microwave Symposium, booth 2146, on June 4-6, 2013. Scintera's products will also be showcased at other semiconductor vendor's booths including Freescale Semiconductor (Booth 2003), Sumitomo Electric Devices Innovations (Booth 2120), ANADIGICS (Booth 718) and Cree, Inc. (Booth 2321).

Availability
The SC2200 and SC2220 will be available in pre-production quantities in Q3 2013 and in mass production quantities in Q1 2014.

About Scintera
Scintera is an industry leader in delivering high performance, compact and very low-power system-on-chip solutions to measure, modify and monitor RF signals and systems. The company's programmable analog signal processing architecture effectively combines digital programmability with the simplicity, small size and low power consumption of analog circuit processing. The first products to leverage this innovative architecture are its family of adaptive RF predistortion linearizers. Scintera's RF power amplifier linearizers (RFPAL) have achieved broad acceptance in the cellular infrastructure and digital terrestrial broadcast markets. Wide deployment in the field has proven that RFPAL can dramatically increase system efficiency and reduce costs in existing applications and is now also enabling novel high performance, cost sensitive and very compact 4G cellular systems. Scintera is privately held and is headquartered in Sunnyvale, California. For further information, please visit www.scintera.com.

The Scintera logo and Scintera are registered trademarks of Scintera Networks, Inc. All other trademarks are the property of their respective owners.

For more information, please contact:

Mendy Ouzillou
Scintera Networks, Inc.
408-636-2662
[email protected]

SOURCE Scintera Networks, Inc.