Maxim’s AISG-compliant transceiver

Maxim’s AISG-compliant transceiver

Product of the Year winner MAX9947 AISG-compliant transceiver from Maxim Integrated Products was designed to simplify the implementation of AISG-compliant base stations and tower-mounted equipment by using a common solution. We recently spoke to Patrick Long, Business Director, Amplifier, Sensors & Video BU Multimedia Business Group for Maxim.

Jim Harrison (left) of Electronic Products presents Product of the Year Award to Patrick Long of Maxim.

What was the need for the device?

Several base station manufacturers had created their own protocol for communication to the tower. With the implementation of 3G, a common protocol was created (AISG). With a new protocol and no standard way to implement in hardware, there was an opportunity for Maxim. Combine the growing trend toward shrinking the size of the base station and the new standard, a single IC solution seemed needed. A discrete solution that may have taken up to 10 mm2 can now be shrunk into a 3-mm2 package. This combined with high-performance modulator and demodulator channels and selective filters makes this product very attractive.”

Besides the Maxim team, were there others involved?

“No others outside of Maxim were directly involved in the project, though inputs from several major customers were used to refine the specifications.”

Were there any challenges when designing the part? How did you overcome them?

“There were lots of performance challenges mainly related to the integrated filters. For this specific project, both product definer (based in Sunnyvale) and design team (based in Milan) spent many hours working on the technical specifications before the design even started. This project probably had the most pre-design work of anything we had done so far. It was also great that the product definer was Italian and was the perfect fit for the design team in Milan.”

Christina Nickolas