Falcomm

myfalcomm.com

We are a fabless integrated circuit design startup on a mission to provide the most energy efficient power amplifier and front-end module products for hardware manufacturers in the 5G mmWave market. One of the biggest challenges for 5G mm-Wave communication is transmitter power and efficiency. In most transceiver designs, power amplifiers (PAs) dominate the overall transmitter efficiency and thermal performance. It is extremely difficult to transmit a signal efficiently over the air at mm-Wave frequencies. To solve this, we developed an ultra-efficient silicon-based power amplifier (PA) topology for 5G mmWave applications called the Dual-Drive PA. For decades, the maximum theoretical efficiency of PAs has been fixed at 78.5%, with most PAs topping out at 40% efficiency. Until now, it was thought to be theoretically impossible to increase the efficiency beyond this figure of 78.5%. Our new, patented technology increases the theoretical maximum efficiency limits of PAs beyond 78.5%; therefore, no other PA can be as efficient as our Dual-Drive PA. Our first prototype was implemented using GlobalFoundries’ 45nm CMOS SOI process and was fully tested and verified. Based on our measurements, our first prototype achieves drain efficiencies that are 20% higher than any state-of-the-art power amplifier in the mmWave frequency range. In addition, our technology was fully verified using the new 5G NR modulation testing standards achieving Gb/s data rates at incredible high efficiency levels. Since PAs dominate the overall transmitter efficiency and thermal performance, our PA technology can be employed by base station, cellphone, and radar manufacturers (to name a few) and decrease their thermal management cost and ease their overall system requirements.