Filtronic, the designer and manufacturer of RF, microwave, and mmWave products for the wireless telecom, mission-critical communications and defense applications, have shipped a total of 50,000 high-performance E-band transceiver modules targeted at the growing 5G backhaul market.
The E-band spectrum (in the mmWave frequency ranges 71 – 76 GHz and 81 – 86 GHz) offers OEMs wide bandwidth, enabling them to provide 5G mobile network operators with high-capacity and high data rate backhaul, mid-haul and front-haul (collectively known as XHaul). E-band has been identified as one of the critical wireless technologies required to address the demanding XHaul capacity requirements of 5G networks and is now experiencing significant growth. Systems containing Filtronic’s core E-band technology have been successfully demonstrated at data rates up to 40 Gbps.
There has been record demand this year for their flagship E-band transceiver module, Orpheus, which has been delivered in volume to a number of customers for integration into high-capacity mobile backhaul radio solutions. Earlier this year, Filtronic added the new-generation Morpheus II to its product range, and demand for this module is beginning to take off as well, in particular for the high power option that is desirable for implementing carrier aggregation.
Both Morpheus II and Orpheus have a highly-integrated architecture with an embedded diplexer and are 100% tested prior to despatch. They contain all the necessary RF transmit and receive functions for an E-band radio link, enabling the module to simply drop in between the antenna and baseband modem, and include a control board that calibrates the whole RF system. Morpheus II also incorporates a new generation of highly linear, high-power amplifier MMICs that have been developed in house by Filtronic. Both products have been qualified for deployment in the latest radio platforms specifically developed for 5G XHaul applications, and Filtronic transceiver modules have been widely deployed and field-proven in wide-bandwidth, high-capacity applications up to 10 Gbps per channel.
Filtronic’s leading-edge E-band solutions feature a readily-configurable architecture and provide an ideal platform to develop systems for other applications globally. These include long-range defence, enterprise, and both high-throughput Low Earth Orbit (LEO) satellites and High Altitude Pseudo-Satellite (HAPS).
