Avago Technologies has announced that early prototypes have been manufactured of the company’s proprietary five-chip family that targets the expanding 38 and 42 GHz cellular radio infrastructure and backhaul point-to-point radio markets. Based on market demand and customer feedback, the millimeter-wave products have been designed for high performance in Surface Mount Technology (SMT) packages.

The chipset is fabricated using Avago’s proprietary 0.17 µm gate Pseudomorphic High Electron Mobility Transistor (PHEMT) process. With 80 GHz FT transistors, this process is more than capable of meeting 40 GHz applications needs. Manufactured in the company’s high yield, high volume, 6-inch wafer processing facility, the chips are packaged in 5 by 5 mm SMT packages with shipment to be in tape and reel. The manufacturing and test operation is fully automated and capable of supplying millions of chipsets per month.

Four SMT chips cover the 38 and 42 GHz bands – up-converter, down-converter, power amplifier and multiplier. Key features include a high directivity power detector in 0402 Wafer Scale Package (WSP), an up-converter with variable gain amplifier (VGA) for 24 dB gain control, a 20 dB power amplifier with 1 W output, high linearity with a 36 dBm OIP3 (third-order intercept), integrated buffer and multiplier and a low noise receiver/down-converter – noise figure under 4.5 dB.