RFX240 CMOS PA delivers 26dBm linear power with best-in-class efficiency

USA: RFaxis Inc. has begun mass production of the RFX240 high-power 2.4GHz PA for wireless local area network (WLAN) applications.

The RFX240 is the first of RFaxis' pure CMOS high-power CMOS PA series targeting the rapidly growing wireless access point (AP), Router, Set Top Box (STB), home gateway, hot spot and other wireless infrastructure markets. The RFX240 is pin-to-pin compatible with incumbent solutions available in today’s market, including Skyworks SE2576L, SE2604L and SE2605L, which are all based on significantly more expensive compound semiconductor processes.

The RFX240 is a high power, high linearity power amplifier built on industry-standard bulk CMOS, the lowest-cost semiconductor process ever to implement an RF device. The RFX240 is optimized to provide the functionality of transmit power amplification for IEEE 802.11b/g/n applications in the 2.4GHz frequency range.

It provides 30dB power gain, 26dBm linear output power for OFDM/64QAM with 5V power supply and consumes 30mA less current than competition PAs of the same category. It integrates full-CMOS logic control, on-chip input and inter-stage impedance matching, RF decoupling, as well as a truly directional coupler based power detector for accurate closed-loop power control. The RFX240 is assembled in a compact 3.0x3.0x0.55mm 16-pin Quad Flat No-Lead (QFN) package. Samples are now available.