Qorvo® has released a high performance, n41 sub-band bulk acoustic wave (BAW) filter for 5G small cells and repeaters, offering low insertion loss and excellent out-of-band rejection in a compact footprint.

Available in production quantities, the Qorvo QPQ1298 filter covers 2.515 to 2.674 GHz with greater than 45 dB near-band attenuation, enabling Wi-Fi coexistence. The QPQ1298 is housed in a 2  mm x 1.6  mm RoHS compliant, Pb free package.

“Filtering has always been a key element to RF design in crowded spectrum, but band 41 is especially challenging due to the wide bandwidth and adjacency to 2.4 GHz Wi-Fi. High performance filters with low insertion loss and steep rejection at the band edges are needed to allow the coexistence of cellular bands for 5G and Wi-Fi operation,” said Dan McNamara, an analyst at market research firm Mobile Experts.

In a small cell base station, the filter will typically be located between the antenna and T/R switch. As it follows the power amplifier, the power handling of the filter is important. Qorvo says the QPQ1298 will operate without failure for more than 10 years with an incident power of +29 dBm from a typical LTE signal — 5 MHz bandwidth, 16-QAM modulation, 25 resource blocks, 8 dB peak to average — at 95°C).

“The immediate availability of this best-in-class BAW filter makes it easy and cost-effective for our customers to quickly roll out band 41 5G,” said Roger Hall, general manager of Qorvo’s High Performance Solutions business.

Qorvo’s portfolio of products for 5G networks and devices includes GaN high-power amplifiers and GaAs front-end modules (FEM) for wireless infrastructure and complete RF solutions for 5G smartphones, including low-band, mid-high and ultra-high-band FEMs.