The latest update to Analog Devices’ RadioVerse technology and design ecosystem simplifies and accelerates radio development for wireless carriers and telecommunications equipment makers as they transition their cellular base stations from 4G to 5G. The expanded RadioVerse portfolio features new radio transceiver hardware, software tools, and a design environment that enables smaller, lower power radios. The new offering lets designers quickly evaluate and develop radio designs for 4G small cell and pre-5G massive MIMO systems, which are key building blocks in the transition to 5G.

A key component of the new family is the AD9375 wideband RF transceiver, which incorporates the digital pre-distortion (DPD) algorithm on-chip, resulting in a large power savings. Embedding the DPD into the transceiver cuts the number of serial data interface lanes in half, which is where the power savings comes from. Other benefits include a more compact radio circuit layout, which reduces base station size and weight. The AD9375 enables a common radio platform that’s tunable over a range of 300 MHz to 6 GHz. It’s designed with two 100-MHz receivers, two 250-MHz transmitters, a two-input observation receiver, and a three-input sniffer receiver.

Other components in the RadioVerse line include wideband devices for base-station architectures ranging from macro- to pico- and femto-cell form factors, in addition to ultra-low power, narrowband transceivers for industrial IoT applications that require long range, network robustness, and long battery life.

Device drivers and full evaluation systems that directly connect to FPGA development platforms are available, as well as transceiver simulation and analysis using Matlab and Simulink modeling software.