Green radio infrastructure that reduces energy costs and carbon emissions
An increasing number of LTE, WiMAX, 3G and other advanced broadband radio systems are being installed around the world to improve both coverage and capacity. With the radio networks normally accounting for around 80% of the total electricity used by an operator, the increase in energy usage, coupled with continually rising energy prices, is driving up operational costs for network operators and contributing to an increased environmental impact. Current next generation base stations are very power-inefficient due to the use of linear RF power amplifiers (PAs), which typically account for half of the total power used by a base station.
Another increasingly important consideration is the need to support a wider range of frequency bands, and multi-mode operation, from the same basic PA design to meet the emerging needs of operators worldwide. Current efficiency improvement techniques, being essentially narrow-band, cannot satisfy this requirement.
Coolteq Benefits
Nujira’s Coolteq technology has the potential to reduce network energy consumption (and hence CO2 emissions) by 50%, increasing network profitability and helping operators' 'green' credentials. Nujira’s technology enables lower maintenance costs and greater reliability through reduced heat dissipation, and allows the design of smaller and cheaper base stations, leading to lower site costs. The lower power consumption also reduces the backup power requirements, further reducing CAPEX and OPEX costs. Finally, Nujira's technology is a key enabler for broadband, multimode PAs for flexible base stations.
How it works
Nujira’s Coolteq Power Modulator is the world’s first integrated High Accuracy Tracking solution for high power linear RF Power Amplifiers (PAs). It replaces the DC-DC converter which is typically used to provide a fixed drain voltage to the PA. The Power Modulator dynamically varies the voltage supplied to the PA in line with the modulation envelope, thus ensuring that the output device operates in near-compression (even at low output powers), and dramatically improves the PA efficiency. The envelope of the signal passing through the amplifier is derived from the modulator/digital pre-distortion (DPD) function. Interfacing to the DPD function is via a digital LVDS interface.
Development System
Nujira’s Coolteq Flexible Development System (FDS) enables platform and RF Power Amplifier (PA) designers to begin PA development for systems using Nujira’s Coolteq-based Envelope Tracking technology. The Coolteq FDS can be configured for a wide range of applications including cellular handsets and dongles, cellular infrastructure, digital TV transmitters and military communications systems.
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