Reconfigurable RF
ART/102CP
20101101 - 20121031
19950
Mr Corbett Ray Rowell
1. Hardware Platform:
• Digital RF FPGA Board:
•High-Performance: One FPGA (Stratix 4 or equivalent) together with the RF transceiver and power amplifier. The initial FPGA board with sample up/down to/from 140MHz IF. The FPGA will implement DPD for PA linearization.
•Low-Cost: One FPGA (Cyclone 3 or equivalent) together with the RF transceiver and power amplifier. The initial FPGA board with sample up/down to/from 140MHz IF. The FPGA will implement DPD for PA linearization.
• RF Transceiver Board: Using third-party components, the RF transceiver will convert the IF to RF and visa versa.
• Power Amplifier:
• Using third party components, a power amplifier with a signal bandwidth of 20-40 MHz with Error Vector Magnitude (EVM) less than 2%
• Wideband Base Station Antennas
• A wideband base station antenna that can cover both 3G and 4G bands (above 1.9 GHz) with performance equivalent to a normal 4G base station antenna.
2. Technical Design Documents for each hardware module
3. USA Patent applications: At least 4 patents in the following areas:
• Digital RF
• DPD
• Automatic tuning and reconfigurable circuits
• Base station antenna assemblies
• FPGA architecture
Altera [Sponsor]
Digital Radio Frequency Communication Co. Ltd (DRF) [Sponsor]
This project focuses on developing a new platform technology for enabling advanced RF and antenna technology. The target application platform is broadcast and communications technology. The project will focus on two areas: Digital Pre-Distortion (DPD) for Power Amplifiers and wide-band base station antennas. The DPD for power amplifiers is essential for making base station RF transceivers reconfigurable. The DPD platform developed in this project is targeted for all wireless standards between 1.9 and 2.7 GHz (3G, LTE, WiMax, WiFi). Once the RF transceiver becomes multi-standard, a wide band base station antenna will be required. The platform project builds on prior experience and IP in active antennas, beam-forming, and isolation in order to create advanced wide-band base station antennas and know-how developed in the previous RF Assemblies project to fully develop the DPD for power amplifiers. In order to enable both prior and future advanced antenna/RF functions, the project will develop a FPGA platform for antenna and RF control. The FPGA platform can also be used as a repeater or a remote radio unit for both legacy wireless networks and future wireless networks. The platform technologies developed will have immediate application within the communications industry, both in small niche markets and the larger infrastructure markets with 4 customers already expressing strong interest to support this project. The new platform technology will enable the Antenna and RF group to work together both with industry and cross-domain within the CT group and ASTRI.