SST Communications has developed two new power amplifiers for 802.11a and 802.11b/g WLAN systems. The products offer the industry’s highest linear output power, up to 3dB higher than competing products in a wide operating temperature range of -40 to +85C, to enable WLAN systems with wider transmission range and higher sustained datarates.

The devices’ ultrawide dynamic range and on-chip temperature-stable power detector allows system designers to optimise the transmitter output power for each individual user, thereby minimising the adjacent channel interference and achieving maximum capacity.

The power amplifiers are targeted at WLAN equipment including PCMCIA, MiniPCI and USB cards, as well as wireless access points.

‘The performance breakthroughs offered by our new power amplifier products are an ideal way for our WLAN customers to gain a competitive advantage in the marketplace’, said Frank Chang, Vice Chairman and CTO, SST Communications.

‘Testing has shown that our new power amplifiers enable up to a 40% increase in range when compared with alternative offerings’.

‘Additionally, by integrating the power detector on-chip, we enable our customers to realise significant savings in BOM costs’.

‘Our experience in working with the leading WLAN baseband and RF transceiver providers has allowed us to design our power amplifiers with the full system considerations in mind’.

For maximum output power performance, SST Communications offers the SST12LP15 power amplifier for 802.11b/g systems, and the SST11LP12 power amplifier, which supports the entire 802.11a frequency band for US, European and Japanese markets (4.9-5.8GHz).

Specifically, the SST12LP15 features: 35dB gain (typical) with 26% power-added efficiency at 24dBm output power for 802.11g, and 29% power-added efficiency at 25dBm for 802.11b systems; excellent linearity of approximately 4% added EVM (error vector magnitude) at 24dBm output power, which is essential for 54Mbit/s 802.11g operation while meeting the standard’s spectrum mask up to +25dBm; and on-chip power detection range of better than 25dB (from 0-25dBm), with superior temperature stability of +/-0.5dB over 0 to 80C.

The SST11LP12 boasts: 35dB gain (typical) with 16% power-added efficiency at an output power of 23dBm for 802.11a (covering the complete 4.9-5.8GHz frequency range); linearity of approximately 4%-added EVM at 21dBm output power and meeting the 802.11a spectrum mask up to +23dBm; and on-chip power detection range of better than 23dB (0-23dBm), with superior temperature stability of +/-0.5dB over 0 to 85C.

Both devices feature single-ended/differential power detectors, which lower users’ power control cost.

SST Communications’ power amplifiers are manufactured using a reliable InGaP/GaAs HBT technology, with tested MTTF exceeding 600Mh at 100C.