Finding The Missing Piece
Mr. Browne,
Your article in the March 4 MWRF
UPDATE e-newsletter titled, “Making
Wireless ICs A Commodity,” got off to
an interesting start. But it appears to
have been cut short on the MWRF web
site. Is it available elsewhere?
Best regards,
Steve Preston
Hi Steve,
Thanks for asking, and for reading.
I’ve been hearing from folks that it is
not obvious what I am referring to at
the bottom of this piece. It was actually
meant to direct people to a story
below it, about 30-cent gain blocks from
Avago. Please see the excerpted version
of my editorial, “Making Wireless ICs
A Commodity,” and the story to which
it refers, titled “InGaP Gain Blocks For
Half A Buck?” —Jack Browne
Making Wireless ICs A Commodity
As the wireless marketplace evolved,
however, to include every handheld
or pocket-sized device imaginable,
the price differential between items
sold for infrastructure use and those
for handsets has become dramatic.
Of course, wireless products are also
used in industrial, medical, and a variety
of smaller markets. Still, it is the
cellular communications market that
represents the largest opportunity. Yet
that dream of competing for sales into
handset markets may have faded for
some companies, given the required
pricing structure. Few companies can
match Avago’s achievement of gain
blocks (see below) for those prices,
even in large volumes.
InGaP Gain Blocks For Half A Buck?
A pair of gain blocks from Avago Technologies
offers cost-effective solutions
for boosting signal levels in WiMAX
and satellite television products. Based
on InGaP heterojunction-bipolar-transistor
(HBT) technology, the MMIC
AVT-51663 and AVT-53663 amplifiers
are ideal for cellular infrastructure and
other wireless applications from DC to
6 GHz. Model AVT-51663 typically provides
19-dB gain, +24-dBm third-order
intercept point, and +12.5-dBm output
power at 1-dB compression with 3.2-dB
noise figure at 2 GHz, running from 37
mA and +5 VDC. Model AVT-53663
operates with +5 VDC and 48 mA for
typically 19.5-dB gain, +5-dBm output
third-order intercept point, +15-dBm
output power at 1-dB compression,
and 3.2-dB noise figure at 2 GHz. Both
are internally matched to 50 Ohms and
supplied in RoHS-compliant SOT-363
surface-mount packages. The models
AVT-51663 and AVT-53663 gain blocks
are available with prices starting at
$0.31 and $0.33, respectively, in 10,000
volumes.
