Transceiver design speeds Edge integration

Edited by the Electronicstalk editorial team Jul 9, 2004

The Aero Edge Radio is billed as the industry's most integrated, highest performance radio for GSM/GPRS/Edge cellular handsets.

The Aero Edge Radio is billed as the industry's most integrated, highest performance radio for GSM/GPRS/Edge cellular handsets.

Based on Silicon Laboratories' proven Aero transceiver technology, a GSM/GPRS/Edge radio can be implemented with 50% less board space and 60% fewer components compared with competing solutions.

The Aero Edge Radio provides a complete turnkey reference design for an entire quad-band GSM/GPRS/Edge radio simplifying design and manufacturing and providing a solution that enables manufacturers to cost-effectively deliver feature-rich Edge handsets, radio modems and modules.

The Aero Edge Radio is based on Silicon Laboratories' Aero II transceiver, the industry's most integrated single-chip GSM/GPRS transceiver.

The Aero II transceiver integrates all critical components including RF and IF voltage-controlled oscillators (VCOs), VCO tuning components and loop filters.

The Aero II transceiver features a proven, highly integrated, digitally controlled crystal oscillator (DCXO) that integrates the reference varactor enabling the use of a standard 26MHz crystal to provide the transceiver reference clock.

"The Aero Edge Radio offers our customers a market-ready platform for Edge handsets enabling high datarates while preserving excellent GSM/GPRS performance", said Ed Healy, Vice President of Silicon Laboratories.

"Based on a proven architecture, the Aero Edge Radio allows handset manufactures to quickly enter the Edge market while delivering the highest level of integration and performance".

Unlike other solutions that require custom components, the Aero Edge Radio includes a proven digital low-IF receiver and a linear transmitter based on a high-performance offset phase-locked loop (OPLL).

Based on this technology, the Aero Edge Radio is qualified for components sourced from multiple vendors, offering customers a high degree of flexibility in procurement and supply.

In addition, the Aero II transceiver includes a software-programmable universal baseband interface that supports all leading basebands for GSM/GPRS including those offered by emerging baseband suppliers for the Edge market.

The development kit for the Aero Edge Radio including baseboard controller, evaluation board, daughtercard, documentation and software is available for $950.

Pricing for the Aero II transceiver begins at $4.94 in quantities of 10,000.

The Aero Edge Radio is sampling in July 2004.