Eta Wireless announced a collaboration with Rohde & Schwarz to support a new digital supply modulation technique that provides power management for the signal bandwidth required by 5G NR and mmWave devices. This allows power amplifier developers and manufacturers to develop solutions with less power dissipation and cut PA power use by up to 50 percent.
The R&S SMW200A vector signal generator and the R&S FSW signal and spectrum analyzer, which offer state-of-the-art power amplifier and front end module and system level testing, can now be used to characterize and integrate ETAdvanced power management solutions. The integration leverages R&S SMW200A for digital envelope support with ETA PMIC families: ETA5 for LTE/5G-NR, ETA6 for Wi-Fi and ETA7 for 5G mmWave. In addition, ETAdvanced Deployment System software integrates Rohde & Schwarz support with its full characterization and calibration suite.
Supporting higher complexity 5G systems operating at mmWave frequencies with high fidelity forces power amplifiers to consume significantly more power and waste a major part of their energy as heat. However, legacy techniques such as analog envelope tracking, commonly used in the current generation of mobile phones to extend battery life, will face challenges in the face of the wider bandwidths foreseen for 5G.
ETAdvanced is the industry’s first power management solution for ultra-wide bandwidth 5G mmWave devices. It supports maximum defined 800 MHz bandwidth scenarios and enables mobile devices to take full advantage of the new 5G standard by minimizing the impact on battery life.
“As 5G is becoming real, we are happy about the successful cooperation with Eta Wireless optimizing efficiency enhancements especially for 5G mmWave devices,” said Sebastian Richter, Vice President Market Segment Industry, Electronics- and RF-Components at Rohde & Schwarz. “Collaborating with a major semiconductor manufacturer on cutting edge technological solutions has the potential of bringing whole industries forward and setting a valuable example.”
“Rohde & Schwarz has a set of a unique time alignment features in its signal generators that enable us to support the GHz level transition speeds required for 5G NR,” said Mattias Astrom, Eta Wireless founder and CEO. “In addition, Rohde & Schwarz’s leadership in 5G test equipment and impressive customer base has made it the perfect partner for us. We are now jointly supporting leading customer deployments of ETAdvanced and are very proud to work with Rohde & Schwarz to improve battery life--the number one complaint in the mobile industry.”
