RF Micro Devices Inc. announced the expansion of the cmpany’s family of PowerSmart® power platforms to include multiple new 3G and 4G LTE PowerSmart product variants. RFMD’s PowerSmart power platforms are at the forefront of the technology shift to converged front ends in multimode, multi-band applications, including smartphones, tablets, and other data-centric mobile broadband devices.

RFMD’s newest PowerSmart power platforms include PowerSmart 4G, a converged multimode multi-band power platform capable of up to 12 bands of 4G LTE, 3G and 2G. RFMD’s PowerSmart 4G is specifically designed for 4G LTE operation and expands upon RFMD’s first-generation PowerSmart power platform by adding three additional bands of 3G or 4G LTE coverage. PowerSmart 4G also includes all necessary switch and signal conditioning functionality in a compact reference design, providing smartphone manufacturers a single scalable source for the entire front end.

RFMD’s expanded PowerSmart product family also includes a new power platform optimized for emerging 3G entry (3Ge) applications and capable of multimode multi-band coverage of up to seven bands of 3G or 2G. Similar to PowerSmart 4G, RFMD’s PowerSmart power platform for emerging 3Ge applications includes all necessary switch and signal conditioning functionality in a compact reference design.

In addition to the 4G and 3Ge power platforms, RFMD is expanding the PowerSmart product family to include multiple 3G and 4G discrete power amplifiers (PA). The discrete PAs can be placed optionally with any RFMD PowerSmart power platform to achieve additional band or mode coverage. Architected in tandem with the RF Configurable Power Core™ in each PowerSmart power platform, these discrete PAs can deliver significantly improved PA efficiency at backed-off power.

Eric Creviston, president of RFMD’s Cellular Products Group (CPG), said, “As the world’s only truly converged solution with single-die multimode performance, RFMD’s PowerSmart is positioned to drive the cellular wide area network (WAN) experience across a broad range of mobile devices, including tablets, notebooks, ultra-books, e-readers and next-generation in-vehicle networking. RFMD is delivering the industry’s most innovative converged front ends for multimode multi-band applications, and we expect these new products to support multiple cellular handset and smartphone manufacturers this calendar year.”

RFMD offers a broad portfolio of 3G and 4G LTE solutions in single-mode and converged architectures to ensure compatibility with leading chipset providers and enable global platform manufacturing. RFMD's 3G and 4G LTE product portfolio reduces the thermal impact of data usage in smartphones while enabling increased battery life during data-centric applications, such as web surfing, video calls and internet radio services.