LONDON — Power amplifier technology specialist Nujira (Cambridge, England) is powering ahead with plans to extend its technology from the wireless infrastructure space to handsets, trebling the size of its development team targeting chips and IP for mobile phones.
The company has assigned Julian Hildersley to lead the team, as Vice President of Handset Development. The team includes Martin Wilson, Chief Scientist & Founder and Bob Henshaw who has joined Nujira as Director, Handset Systems Engineering.
Three IC design engineers have also been recruited over the past few months with RF and analog development experience, all based at the company's Cambridge development facility.
Nujira revealed earlier this year its diversification plans into the handsets and broadcast equipment sectors.
"The RF challenge in a 4G multi-standard handset is the creation of a broadband network air interface that will work around the world within the size, power and cost constraints of a compact portable device," commented Nujira CEO Tim Haynes.
He adds the company's technology has improved transmission efficiency in base stations from typically low 20 percent for a class AB amplifier to mid 40 percent.
"Internal evaluations show that similar performance can be achieved in the handset environment, and our expanded team has the resources to bring this technology to market in a production-ready form."
"For 4G handset RF designers, the hurdle is the availability of efficient, wide-band power amplifiers to support a high performance, cost effective transmission circuit that works across all the frequency bands in use around the world", suggested Hildersley.
Conventional techniques for improving PA efficiency are inherently narrowband, and are unable to span more than a single band. This implies five or more conventional PAs for a broadband cellular RF interface seeking to cover all ten LTE bands " adding several dollars to the bill of materials, notes Hildersley.
"This additional cost of multi-banding maybe be halved if this could be reduced to one or two wide band PA devices without compromising efficiency. Applying [our] Coolteq High Accuracy Tracking (HAT) technology alongside current state of the art PA devices allows this to be achieved," he maintains.
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