NXP introduced its third generation of Airfast products, which includes four LDMOS transistors for cellular macro base stations. The Airfast 3 technology meets the stringent requirements of all current wireless standards with wide instantaneous bandwidths to cover an entire cellular band using a single device.
The products target the smart connected infrastructure, which will need smaller designs and lower power consumption to handle the increased data capacity needed for smart cities. This is competition to other RF power products, such as the GaN-based transistors from Infineon and Wolfspeed, but this LDMOS version will likely be less expensive (production pricing not released yet).
Compared to Airfast 2, this third generation delivers up to 4% greater efficiency (53% final-stage efficiency and up to 50% lineup efficiency), a 20% improvement in thermal performance, up to 90-MHz full-signal bandwidth, and space savings up to 30%. The devices are the first Airfast products to be housed in air-cavity plastic packages. They offer the needed RF performance with a lower thermal resistance, reducing overall system heat dissipation. They are currently sampling with production expected to start in Q4 2016. Reference circuits for various frequencies are available. NXP: www.nxp.com/Airfast.
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