San Diego — Agilent Technologies Inc. announced Monday at the Wireless Systems Design Conference and Expo its combined CDMA duplexer/power amplifier front-end module (FEM) for use in dual-band and U.S. PCS (Personal Communications Service) mobile phones and wireless data cards.

This integration of two technologies enables manufacturers to produce smaller-size handsets with higher power-added efficiency, which can mean more functionality, extended battery life and longer phone talk-time. The FEM’s miniature size also helps manufacturers trim costs with up to 50 percent savings in board space, and up to 65 percent reduction in parts count, including passive components.

Strong demand from handset manufacturers continues to fuel combined shipments of Agilent’s E-pHEMT power amplifiers and FBAR duplexers at a rate of more than four million units per month, according to the company.

The Agilent AFEM-7731 is a fully matched CDMA-1900 MHz FEM, integrating Agilent’s efficient ACPM-7833 E-pHEMT (enhancement-mode pseudomorphic high electron mobility transistor) power amplifier with its miniature ACMD-7401 FBAR (film bulk acoustic resonator) duplexer and all matching circuitry into a compact 5 mm x 8 mm x 1.3 mm chip-on-board module. Compared to designs using separate power amplifiers and duplexers, the FEM features higher effective power-added efficiency (PAE) for longer talk time, and high isolation and low loss in the receive band for high sensitivity. The optimized matching between the power amplifier and duplexer eliminates the need for a bulky and costly isolator.

Mobile phone frequency bands and air interface standards differ by geography, so multiband, multimode handsets need a certain combination of frequency bands and standards to meet local radio requirements. Handset radio front-end architectures need to be flexible to work with these various combinations. “By-band” front-end modules that are partitioned by frequency band (for example, 1900 MHz and 850 MHz) can be used in any phone with a CDMA-1900 MHz PCS band. For example, this FEM can be used in single-band and dual-band CDMA handsets, and in multi-air interface phones such as those with CDMA, W-CDMA and GSM. Agilent is developing a variety of modules using this by-band approach.

In addition to its small footprint and ultra-thin size, the RF FEM offers these features for handset and data card design:

• 3.4 V operation (3.2 V min.)

• High efficiency, with low current (380 mA typical current at 24.5 dBm linear output power) provides approx. 50 mA current savings

• Low quiescent current implemented using fixed and dynamic bias control

• High isolation (low Tx leakage at Rx port)

For more information, visit www.agilent.com.

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