Supplement: Electronics Industry Awards – Finalists
Driving innovation: Guerrilla RF’s 2024 leap in automotive telematics
In an age where automotive technology is advancing at an unprecedented rate, telematics have become central to enhancing vehicle safety, connectivity, and driver convenience. The emergence of shark fin antennas on modern vehicles underscores the growing importance of telematics systems, which integrate GPS/GNSS, V2X (Vehicle-to-Everything) communications, SDARS (Satellite Digital Audio Radio Services), and cellular compensators. Each of these components plays a critical role in ensuring seamless operation and communication within and beyond the vehicle. Guerrilla RF, a leader in RFIC (Radio Frequency Integrated Circuit) and MMIC (Monolithic Microwave Integrated Circuit) design, has made significant strides in this area with its latest semiconductor products, showcasing a commitment to advancing automotive telematics.
The need for cellular compensators Automobiles, by their very nature, act as Faraday Cages—structures that effectively shield their interiors from external electromagnetic fields. This inherent characteristic poses a challenge for cellular communication. As vehicles are constructed with metal bodies, the signals exchanged between cell phones and nearby towers become attenuated, leading to weak connectivity (refer to Figure 1). To address this, automotive manufacturers have integrated shark fin antennas on vehicle rooftops to capture and relay signals to a mobile phone which is typically placed on a dual-purposed charging/signal coupling cradle within the vehicle’s centre console. However, the cabling required to relay these signals to the cradle introduces additional signal degradation. To overcome these cable losses, cellular compensators—specialized bi-directional amplifiers designed to boost and balance signal strength—are essential. These compensators enhance both uplink and downlink signals, ensuring reliable cellular
Figure 1
attenuation caused by vehicle cabling and metal shielding.
connectivity within the vehicle cabin despite the interference from its metal structure.
Guerrilla RF’s breakthrough in cellular compensator technology Guerrilla RF has been at the forefront of developing automotive-grade RFICs tailored for these advanced applications, and its broad portfolio includes multiple function blocks like LNAs (low noise amplifiers), gain
blocks, drivers, PAs (power amplifiers), RF switches, and DSAs (digital step attenuators). The company’s commitment to automotive telematics is exemplified by their recent releases, which include the GRF2106W and GRF2133W LNAs and the GRF5507W and GRF5517W linear PAs. These products represent a significant leap forward in performance and reliability.
The GRF2106W and GRF2133W LNAs are designed to meet the rigorous AEC-Q100 automotive quality standards while also offering exceptional noise figure performance, high gain, and broad frequency coverage. These LNAs are integral to a leading tier 1 compensator design that has recently entered production. Their superior performance ensures that signals are amplified efficiently across the up- and downlink chains, overcoming the
34 September 2024 Components in Electronics
Adding to this, Guerrilla RF’s GRF5507W and GRF5517W linear power amplifiers, alongside the previously announced GRF5526W and GRF5536W, cover a wide frequency range from 700MHz to 4200MHz. These amplifiers are designed to handle 4G/5G cellular applications, providing up to 23dBm of output power while meeting the stringent spectral mask requirements imposed upon all cellular transmit devices. Notably, these devices achieve this performance without the need for complex linearization schemes like digital pre-distortion (DPD) and crest factor reduction (CFR), thus simplifying design and reducing cost and power dissipation.
Guerrilla RF stands alone in developing these unique power amplifiers for this highly specialized application within the automotive industry. The company has 10 pin-compatible ¼ W variants of these cores designed for all the major cellular bands up to 4200MHz, and a new family of even higher power ½ W devices are sampling now.
Conclusion
Guerrilla RF’s latest semiconductor products are a testament to the company’s innovation and leadership in the automotive telematics space. The recent multi-million-dollar contract tied to these new devices highlights their success and growing market appeal. As automotive manufacturers continue to push the envelope in vehicle connectivity and safety, Guerrilla RF’s advancements in cellular compensators are poised to play a pivotal role in the evolution of in-car technology. With their state-of-the-art RFICs, Guerrilla RF is not only enhancing the driving experience but also setting new standards for automotive telematics performance.
www.guerrilla-rf.com/automotive
www.cieonline.co.uk.uk
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