Qualcomm announces new RF chips for thinner, more-powerful devices

Qualcomm today has announced the RF360 Front End Solution, which they claim “enables for the first time a single, global 4G LTE design for mobile devices.” The RF360 is actually a family of RF chips designed to eliminate the problem of band fragmentation while also improving RF performance — killing two birds with one stone. In turn, this helps phone makers manufacturer mobile devices that support all the major bands more easily than before. Plus, it’ll make future mobile devices thinner and more powerful.

These RF chips also feature numerous industry firsts, including the first envelope power tracker for smartphones, as well as “a dynamic antenna matching tuner, an integrated power amplifier-antenna switch, and a 3D-RF packaging solution incorporating key front end components.” Essentially, these chips reduce power consumption and improve RF performance, while also reducing the size of the RF chips by up to 50% compared to current offerings, allowing for thinner devices.

The envelope power tracker inside the chip is designed to reduce power consumption by up to 30% and dissipate heat a lot better than previous-generation chips. The dynamic antenna matching tuner extends antenna range to operate over more frequency bands and spectrums, and the integrated power amp and antenna switch also has a smaller hardware footprint, and is the first of its kind to implement the power amp and antenna switch in one chip, allowing phone makers to develop thinner devices.

As for when we should expect new devices packing this new technology, Qualcomm says that devices featuring the complete Qualcomm RF360 Solution are expected to be launched sometime in the second half of this year. Of course, we’ll be at Mobile World Congress in just a few days, where we may hear more from Qualcomm at that time. Stay tuned.

[via Android Community]