Infineon Announces Industry's First High-Performance LDMOS RF Power Transistors in Copper-Based Open-Cavity Plastic Packages for RoHS-Compliant Designs
Jun 20, 2008
NEUBIBERG, GERMANY and ATLANTA, GA -- At the IEEE MTT-S International Microwave Symposium , Infineon Technologies AG announced a new family of RF power transistors in an innovative open-cavity plastic package with a copper base. The new EPOC® (Enhanced Plastic Open-Cavity) package offers a 12 percent improvement in thermal resistance due to the better thermal conductivity of copper, allowing superior thermal and RF performance that are similar to traditional ceramic packages, but at a lower total cost and with improved reliability. With its EPOC package, thin-die and proprietary die-attach technologies, Infineon achieves the best thermal performance with high reliability and consistency for a high-volume cellular infrastructure market.
Based on Infineon's advanced LDMOS (laterally diffused metal-oxide semiconductor) process technology, the new transistors are ideally suited for use in power amplifiers in high-performance cellular infrastructure applications. They are also the industry's first RF power transistors to be available in this type of environmentally friendly package.
Until now, high-performance RoHS-compliant RF power transistors have only been available in ceramic packages with gold-plated leads. Mainstream methods for lead-free assembly of such packages typically involve complicated clamping designs, custom soldering profiles and assembly processes using lead-free solders, or expensive de-golding operations. The Infineon open-cavity plastic package provides an alternative to these, and can achieve significant manufacturing cost savings. For example, de-golding can cost between $2 and $8 per package, depending on the number of leads. Eliminating that procedure can translate into a saving of 10 to 25 percent in total production costs for a typical 120 W transistor. In addition, the superior thermal performance of the open-cavity plastic package lowers operating junction temperatures by 5 percent (typical), and results in higher reliability, making the new RF power transistors an ideal solution for the new generation of tower-mounted cellular base stations.
"The dynamics of the cellular market are placing continued price pressures on the base station amplifier market, but performance continues to be a key consideration in RF power amplifier design," said Helmut Vogler, Vice President and General Manager for RF Power, Infineon Technologies. "Therefore, the key goal in the design of these product families was to maintain high performance in an EPOC package for a total lower cost. With them, designers will be able to create the smaller, more energy-efficient power amplifiers that are required by wireless system operators as they build out base station infrastructure for advanced mobile communications."
Device Details
Operating frequencies of the new LDMOS devices range from 920 MHz to 1880 MHz, covering all the typical modulation formats with average output power levels of 25 W and 50 W.
Operating at 28 V, the PTFA091201GL and PTFA091201FL provide a typical gain of 18.5 dB and 44 percent efficiency at 50 W average output power under EDGE signal conditions. These transistors are ideal for GSM/EDGE applications in the 920 MHz - 960 MHz frequency band.
The PTFA181001GL and PTFA181001HL transistors provide a typical gain of 17 dB and 27.5 percent efficiency at 25 W average output power under WCDMA signal conditions operating at 28 V. These transistors are ideal for WCDMA and GSM/EDGE applications in the 1805 MHz -1880 MHz frequency band.
Availability
Production quantities of the new LDMOS RF power transistors will be available in the third quarter of 2008.
Infineon is showing its new family of LDMOS RF power transistors for cellular infrastructure applications in Booth #1216 at the IEEE MTT-S International Microwave Symposium, June 16 - 19, 2008, in Atlanta, Georgia.
About Infineon
Infineon Technologies AG, Neubiberg, Germany, offers semiconductor and system solutions addressing three central challenges to modern society: energy efficiency, communications, and security. In the 2007 fiscal year (ending September), the company reported sales of Euro 7.7 billion (including Qimonda sales of Euro 3.6 billion) with approximately 43,000 employees worldwide (including approximately 13,500 Qimonda employees). With a global presence, Infineon operates through its subsidiaries in the U.S. from Milpitas, CA, in the Asia-Pacific region from Singapore, and in Japan from Tokyo. Infineon is listed on the Frankfurt Stock Exchange and on the New York Stock Exchange .
