MaxLinear, a specialist in wireless infrastructure silicon solutions, and RFHIC announced that RFHIC’s GaN power amplifiers (PA) and MaxLinear’s Sierra single chip Radio SoC have together delivered breakthrough energy efficiency for very high power macro cell Radio Units (RU).
This combined PA solution reduces the radio’s power consumption, weight and volume, enabling Open RAN vendors to deliver new RU products that are smaller, lighter, and more energy efficient.
The combination of MaxLinear’s Digital Pre-Distortion (DPD) linearization technology (MaxLIN), running on the Sierra single chip Radio SoC, and RFHIC’s ID19801D GaN high-efficiency power amplifier, driven by RFHIC’s SDM19007-30H drive amplifier, provides breakthrough line-up power efficiency of 55.2% with excellent linearized performance (ACLR < -61dBc and EVM < 3%) at 49.6dBm (91W) while operating in the PCS band from 1930 MHz to 1995 GHz with 2xNR10MHz carriers.
“Energy efficiency has become one of the highest priorities for global operators to meet their OPEX and ESG targets,” said Puneet Sethi, MaxLinear’s Vice President, Wireless Infrastructure. “MaxLinear’s Sierra Radio SoC, with MaxLIN DPD technology, together with RFHIC’s GaN power amplifiers enables Open RAN radio vendors to meet these challenging demands with a platform for new high efficiency RU.”
“As 5G deployments continue to grow worldwide, network providers need to scale their coverage in a fast and cost-efficient manner,” said Samuel Cho, Founder and CTO of RFHIC. “We can deliver COTS and customizable solutions in a fraction of the time due to our one-stop GaN solution process. This process allows our customers to design and build their products more efficiently and get to market faster.”
“Integration of power amplifiers, digital predistortion, and transceivers has become an absolutely critical part of radio design”, commented Joe Madden, Principal Analyst at Mobile Experts. “High efficiency leads to smaller heatsinks…this is key because of the high cost of renting space on towers. Modern multi-band networks are making this aspect of cost control more important than ever for mobile operators.”
MaxLinear and RFHIC will be demonstrating this high-efficiency power amplifier solution for high power Personal Communications Service (PCS) macro radios at the Mobile World Congress 2025 trade show (Hall 2, Meeting Room 2L8MR) from March 3-6.
More about MaxLinear’s Single-Chip Radio Solution
Sierra is an innovative Radio SoC that flexibly supports all major RU applications, including traditional macro, massive MIMO, pico, all-in-one small cells, and more. Sierra integrates the following sub-systems into a single chip, providing a complete software-programmable radio signal processing engine for O-RUs:
- RF transceiver supporting up to 8 transmitters, 8 receivers, and 2 feedback receivers
- Digital Front End (DFE) including MaxLIN digital pre-distortion (DPD) and crest factor reduction (CFR), and Passive Intermodulation (PIM) cancellation
- Low-PHY baseband processor supporting 5G, 4G, and NB-IoT air interfaces
- O-RAN Alliance Split 7.2x fronthaul interface
For more information on the Sierra RF Radio SoC or MaxLIN DPD linearization technology, visit:
More about RFHIC GaN Power Amplifiers
RFHIC offers a comprehensive range of GaN transistors and turnkey EVB solutions for O-RAN applications, supporting N77 and N79 bands. The ID Series GaN power transistors operate from 1.8GHz to 4.2GHz, with available saturated power levels of 410W, 460W, 700W, and 800W.
Additionally, RFHIC provides 2-stage hybrid drive amplifiers (SDM Series)—fully integrated microstrip GaN hybrid modules, internally matched to 50 ohms and housed in a ceramic surface-mount package. These amplifiers cover 1.8GHz to 4.1GHz, with available power levels of 40W, 60W, and 80W.
For seamless integration and testing, RFHIC also offers compact ultra-high-power EVB solutions, which include an evaluation test board, pre-drive amplifier, and main transistor.
