Technology: GLOBALFOUNDRIES 45nm RFSOI
Weasic team
A growing market need for high-performance wideband synthesizers
The expanding market of 5G backhaul networks and the growing demand for satellite communications both lead to an increasing customer need for high-performance wideband synthesizers. These two factors have weighed on our decision to develop a family of Fractional-N RF Synthesizers to address those markets.
Leveraging customer feedback and proprietary data collected from the field, we have come to the conclusion that the Fractional-N RF Synthesizer market for 5G backhaul and satellite radios is a worthmaking investment for Weasic with significant expected ROI.
Layout of the Fractional-N RF synthesizer.
Developing a Fractional-N RF synthesizer
We designed a Fractional-N RF synthesizer with a wide output frequency range from 7GHz to 28GHz, low output phase noise -100dBc at 100KHz offset (when output is 14GHz) and -92dBc at 100KHz (when output is 28GHz). The system requires a reference signal of 100MHz to 800MHz and provides an output signal with power greater than 0dBm across the frequency range. The device is fabricated with 45RFSOI, a partially depleted SOI technology of GLOBALFOUNDRIES.
PLL 7GHz measured performance with reference operating at 200MHz (2 X 100MHz external reference).
Successfully addressing demanding applications
We have verified the full functionality of the phase-locked loop (PLL). The measured results are quite close to the simulated performance. This device can be used as a low power PLL for demanding applications like 5G backhaul and Satellite Communications where there is a great need for mmWave local oscillator (LO) signals that can be phase adjusted over time.
Chip picture of the QFN package with the die.
