Agilent Technologies Shrinks FBAR Full-band Transmit Filter by 66%
1/27/2004 - Agilent Technologies Inc. (NYSE: A) announced a new, smaller film bulk acoustic resonator (FBAR) full-band transmit filter for handsets, data cards and other wireless products operating in the U.S. PCS (personal communications service) frequency band. The ACPF-7002 is 66 percent smaller and provides higher performance than Agilent's first-generation ACPF-7001 full-band filter. Agilent also introduced a smaller FBAR duplexer (ACMD-7401).(1)
"Our breakthrough packaging technology enables us to reduce the size of our FBAR transmit filter, creating a perfect complement to our smaller second-generation FBAR duplexer," said Bryan Ingram, vice president and general manager of Agilent's Wireless Semiconductor Division. "The combination significantly reduces board space, making it possible to design even slimmer, feature-rich mobile phones, and provide additional functionality in PC cards for laptop computers."
In typical CDMA handset architectures, the transmit filter is incorporated between the driver amplifier and the power amplifier to reduce noise in the receive band, thereby enhancing receiver sensitivity. The high rejection capability of Agilent's miniature FBAR transmit filter keeps out unwanted signals, and its low insertion loss increases transmitter efficiency and performance.
Many of today's CDMA handset designs use two surface acoustic wave (SAW) split-band filters to cover the 1850-1880 MHz and 1880-1910 MHz portions of the PCS transmit frequency range, with the appropriate filter selected via a radio-frequency switch. Agilent's FBAR full-band filter eliminates the need for a second filter, a radio-frequency switch and associated passive components. This space savings reduces the printed circuit board area required for the transmit filter by up to 90 percent, while lowering manufacturing costs and eliminating the need for interface design and programming.
The ACPF-7002 is the first full-band transmit filter built with Agilent's innovative Microcap bonded-wafer chip scale packaging technology. This process allows the ultra-small filter to be assembled in a molded-chip-on-board (MCOB) module that is less than 1.0 mm high with a 1.6 mm x 2.0 mm footprint.
ACPF-7002 Features
In addition to small size and high performance, the ACPF-7002 offers these features for handset and data card design:
- typical insertion loss of 2.5 dB over the 1850-1910 MHz transmit band
- minimum attenuation of 33 dB over the 1930-1990 MHz receive band
- receive chain with a lower third-order intercept point (less dynamic range), thus saving current
- filter specified over the -30ºC to +85ºC temperature range
U.S. Pricing and Availability The ACPF-7002 is priced at $0.54 each in 100,000-piece quantities. Samples and production quantities are immediately available. Agilent plans to make the ACPF-7002 available through its distribution partners in the first half of 2004.
Further information on Agilent's RF semiconductor products is available at www.agilent.com/view/rf
Agilent's Mobile Appliance Solutions
Agilent is a leading supplier of semiconductor solutions for today's highly integrated, feature-rich mobile handsets. In addition to FBAR filters and E-pHEMT power amplifiers that help shrink handset size and save battery life, Agilent provides CMOS imaging solutions that enable camera phones, infrared transceivers for transmitting data, surface mount LEDs that provide backlighting styling options, and ambient light photo sensors that save battery life by controlling backlighting. No other component vendor offers all of these solutions for mobile appliances.
About Agilent Technologies
Agilent Technologies Inc. (NYSE: A) is a global technology leader in communications, electronics, life sciences and chemical analysis. The company's 29,000 employees serve customers in more than 110 countries. Agilent had net revenue of $6.1 billion in fiscal year 2003. Information about Agilent is available on the Web at www.agilent.com.
(1) Further information is available at www.agilent.com/about/newsroom/presrel/2004/26jan2004b.html
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