RF Micro Devices Inc. (RFMD), a global leader in the design and manufacture of high performance semiconductor components, released the industry's first 5.8 GHz ISM band transceiver with an integrated power amplifier.
The ML5805 is a low-IF, frequency shift key (FSK) transceiver designed for operation in the license-free 5.8 GHz ISM band. Proprietary point-to-point and point-to-multi-point radios using 5.8 GHz ISM band transceivers are increasingly being implemented in consumer applications such as wireless audio, wireless video and data connectivity.
The ML5805 integrates the power amplifier (PA) and low noise amplifier (LNA) with the transceiver architecture onto a single chip. The ML5805's unique design provides radio designers industry-leading ease-of-implementation and a minimal external bill-of-materials (BOM) count as well as improved time-to-market for original equipment manufacturers (OEM). Additionally, the ML5805 provides radio designers the flexibility to optimize each application by offering five, digitally selectable data rates ranging from 576 Kbps up to 2.048 Mbps. The variable data rate capability of the ML5805 allows it to serve a broad range of applications and further accelerates OEM time-to-market by enabling broadly applicable 5.8 GHz radio platforms.
The ML5805 is RFMD's first product to incorporate the company's proprietary FastWave™ microcontroller technology, which improves performance through value-add features including self-alignment of the low-IF receiver and phase locked loop (PLL) detection and control. FastWave also provides flexible user-specific application configurations by allowing modifications via a three-wire serial interface to transceiver control, calibration and interface algorithms. With the implementation of FastWave, the ML5805 allows customers to eliminate the cumbersome mass production tuning process necessary with competing transceiver solutions.
Alastair Upton, general manager of RFMD's Broadband and Consumer Business Unit, said, "As the industry's first 5.8 GHz ISM band transceiver to integrate the power amplifier, the ML5805 eases implementation for radio designers and accelerates time-to-market for OEMs. Also, with the implementation of our proprietary FastWave microcontroller technology, the ML5805 delivers incremental benefits to designers and OEMs in time savings and simplified design. The ML5805 improves upon the performance characteristics of our popular ML5800 and is designed to target a significantly expanded range of data rate applications."
The ML5805 improves upon the successful ML5800, which has enjoyed favorable design activity into multiple proprietary wireless connectivity applications, including wireless speaker applications by Eleven Engineering. RFMD will demonstrate a high-performance Eleven Engineering audio application in its booth at the 2008 IEEE International Microwave Symposium (IMS 2008).