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Skyworks Debuts its Industry-First 5G Small-Cell RFFE Reference Designs

June 19, 2022

These 5G RFFE reference design boards will simplify and accelerate the development process for equipment manufacturers.

This article is part of our IMS2022 coverage.

Skyworks will be showcasing two new 5G small cell RF front-end (RFFE) reference design boards at its IMS2022 Booth 6068. Designed to operate with leading transceiver ICs from Analog Devices (ADI) and AMD, these new RFFE reference designs allow 5G equipment manufacturers to accelerate time to market for their small-cell products. The ADI-compliant 4T4R and the AMD-compliant 8T8R 5G small-cell reference designs showcase Skyworks’ SKY66520-11 and SKY66523-11 power amplifiers (PAs). Using these partner platforms from ADI and AMD, Skyworks’ ACLR-compliant PAs demonstrate an IBW signal of greater than 200 MHz. The performance of the reference boards and PAs from Skyworks offer mobile network operators and wireless service providers an increase in 5G radio bandwidth that is essential for next-generation deployments.

As 5G small cell reference boards for RFFE don’t currently exist, today’s telecom OEMs must design their own boards and rely on evaluation boards of individual target components. Skyworks’ new 5G RFFE reference design boards will simplify and accelerate the development process for these companies, allowing them to immediately test their system designs on Skyworks’ reference boards. Additionally, these board designs provide equipment manufacturers with high-quality components from Skyworks.

For more information, visit the product website.

For more IMS2022 coverage, visit our digital magazine.

About the Author

David Maliniak | Executive Editor, Microwaves & RF

I am Executive Editor of Microwaves & RF, an all-digital publication that broadly covers all aspects of wireless communications. More particularly, we're keeping a close eye on technologies in the consumer-oriented 5G, 6G, IoT, M2M, and V2X markets, in which much of the wireless market's growth will occur in this decade and beyond. I work with a great team of editors to provide engineers, developers, and technical managers with interesting and useful articles and videos on a regular basis. Check out our free newsletters to see the latest content.

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About me:

In his long career in the B2B electronics-industry media, David Maliniak has held editorial roles as both generalist and specialist. As Components Editor and, later, as Editor in Chief of EE Product News, David gained breadth of experience in covering the industry at large. In serving as EDA/Test and Measurement Technology Editor at Electronic Design, he developed deep insight into those complex areas of technology. Most recently, David worked in technical marketing communications at Teledyne LeCroy, leaving to rejoin the EOEM B2B publishing world in January 2020. David earned a B.A. in journalism at New York University.