Date: 29/09/2011

LDMOS RF power transistors operates upto 2GHz at a 10-15% increased efficiency

STMicroelectronics has announced new radio-frequency (RF) power transistors with increased performance, ruggedness and reliability built using an advanced technology for applications such as government communications, private mobile radio as used by emergency services, and L-band satellite uplink equipment.

"LDMOS is a key enabling technology for high-speed, robust wireless communications, and our next-generation devices will help equipment designers boost RF power without compromising important system metrics, including linearity, ruggedness and reliability," said Serge Juhel, RF Product Marketing and Application Support Manager.

"The advanced products we are announcing today will deliver benefits in critical applications such as private mobile radio, government wideband communications, avionics systems and satellite uplink radio."

The LET family of RF transistors uses ST's latest STH5P LDMOS technology to achieve increased power saturation capability, which minimizes distortion at higher power levels, operate at frequencies up to 2GHz with major linearity, ruggedness and reliability improvements and efficiency is increased by 10-15 percent compared to devices using earlier LDMOS processes, says ST.

The devices have 3dB higher gain than their predecessors, which simplifies amplifier design and minimizes parts count and additional enhancements include an increase in breakdown voltage to 80V from 65V and improved thermal performance, leading to greater reliability, increased load mismatch capability, as per ST.

Availability, package and pricing: Six devices belonging to the LET family are currently in full production and five more will be released to production in Q4 2011.Available in the industry-standard, bolt-down or eared package styles, they are priced from $31 to $128.7 in quantities of 1000 units.