Royal Philips Electronics' fifth-generation LDMOS process technology should allow wideband-CDMA (W-CDMA) base stations to break through the 30 percent efficiency barrier for RF power amplifier output stages. That achievement raises W-CDMA efficiency by as much as 4 percent when compared to LDMOS processes currently in production. Using this technology for W-CDMA base stations, RF power amplifiers can reduce power consumption by more than 15 percent.

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Fabricated on the company's 0.14-um CMOS production lines, Philips' new LDMOS technology produces RF power transistors with a 0.4-µm feature size and four-layer metallization. These characteristics yield high values for operating efficiency, gain and linearity.

The LDMOS technology suits operation across all frequency bands in the 800 MHz to 2.2 GHz range. Expected to sample in the fourth quarter of this year, the company's first devices will target the UMTS and 2-GHz PCS/DCS bands. One new transistor is the BLF5G22-100, a W-CDMA transistor that offers 17 dB gain, an ACLR5 of -39 dBc, an operating efficiency of 30 percent at an average power output of 26 W, and a peak output power of more than 160 W. These specifications are based on two-carrier W-CDMA operation with 10-MHz spacing and a PAR of 8.5 dB at 0.01 percent probability on CCDF.