The ENS92030 from EnSilica is a Multi-channel Beamforming Transceiver IC that is designed for phased-array electronically steerable antenna systems. It has 4 Rx and 4 Tx paths with each RF path containing independent 5-bit phase control and fine gain control to achieve accurate beam steering and gain compensation/weighting between antenna elements. It operates in the Ka-Band with an Rx frequency from 17.7-21.2 GHz (Rx) and a Tx frequency from 27.5-30 GHz. This transceiver delivers an Rx gain of 68 dB with has a receiver noise figure of 3-3.3 dB. On the Tx side it provides up to 10 dBm of power.
The on-chip receive path sums the Ka-Band receive elements before IQ down-conversion to Zero-IF/Low-IF, with further variable gain and filtering to interface to an external IQ ADC and its on-chip transmit path takes input IQ baseband signals from an external IQ DAC and provides filtering before modulating up to the Ka-Band beamforming transmit elements. This receiver IC has Internal frequency multiplier circuits to generate the clocking signals required for the receiver frequency IQ down-conversion and transmitter IQ up-conversion, from a single external LO input. It also has an integrated LO buffer that allows for LO daisy chaining to efficiently support large antenna array build up using multiple transceiver ICs.
The IC requires a DC supply from 1.1-1.8 V, consumes 200 mW of power in Rx mode and 380 mW of power in Tx mode. This transceiver can be controlled via an addressable SPI interface.
The ENS92030 supports customization services that include Rx-only & Tx-only separate ICs, changing the number of RF paths per IC, changing the supported signal bandwidths or frequency bands/planning and adding more integration i.e., full PL or data converters. It is available as a die that measures 3.3 x 3.3 mm and is ideal for Electronic steerable Ka-Band antenna arrays and beamforming applications, LEO, MEO, GEO satellite communications, Aerospace, maritime, defense comms/radar, Test and measurement, TDD (Time Division Duplex) applications, Support for RHCP, LHCP and linear polarization and FDD (Frequency Division Duplex) applications.
