Agilent Announces Two New PA Modules For CDMA Mobile Handsets

Shanghai, China -- Agilent Technologies today announced two new 3 mm by 3 mm CDMA power amplifier modules featuring the company's CoolPAM technology. CoolPAM significantly reduces battery power consumption, allowing manufacturers to increase talk time by as much as 30 minutes. CoolPAM also allows mobile handsets to run cooler. In March 2005, Agilent introduced its family of 4 mm by 4 mm W-CDMA power amplifier modules featuring CoolPAM.

The Agilent WS1102 and WS1401 are CDMA power amplifier (PA) modules designed for handsets operating in the 824 to 849 MHz and 1850 to 1910 MHz bands, respectively. The WS1102 also operates in AMPS mode for backward compatibility with North American analog cellular systems.

Agilent's CoolPAM technology provides reliability, temperature stability, cool operation, and ruggedness. The PAs are already being used in handsets from Korean manufacturers.

"These 3 mm by 3 mm power amplifiers were developed based on requests from our handset customers for both smaller footprints and the efficiency and performance of Agilent's CoolPAM technology," said Bryan Ingram, VP and general manager of the Wireless Semiconductor Division in Agilent's Semiconductor Products Group. "We expect to further extend mobile handset talk-time capabilities by integrating CoolPAM into next-generation front-end modules that incorporate low-loss FBAR duplexers."

These CoolPAM CDMA amplifiers are designed to operate at 3.4 V (3.2 V minimum) for compatibility with today's low-current consumption designs. They incorporate 50-ohm input and output matching networks for simple integration, and are equipped with a control pin that sets operating parameters for highest efficiency when operating at low-output power levels. The new PAs provide a power-added efficiency of 20% at 16 dBm and offer the lowest average operating current in the industry, according to Agilent. They are supplied in a 3 mm by 3 mm by 1.4 mm, 8-pin surface-mount module designed to assure high thermal conductivity, which minimizes temperature rise for higher reliability.

Sample and production quantities of the Agilent WS1102 and WS1401 CoolPAM power amplifier modules are available now.

Source: Agilent Technologies