Picocom, a 5G Open RAN baseband semiconductor and software provider, and iCana have announced a new partnership. This partnership aims at leveraging their respective capabilities to jointly develop a 5G Open RAN Small Cell radio unit reference platform. The 5G NR FR1 small cell RU reference designs will enable customers to bring their products to market faster, with greater efficiency and cost-effectively.
The combination of Picocom’s digital predistortion (DPD) technology, specifically crafted for small cells, and iCana’s DPD-friendly 4 W, 8 W and 20 W power amplifiers, realised in GaAs and GaN technologies, provides an efficient solution with reduced power consumption, complexity, size, and cost while maintaining high performance and reliability.
Peter Claydon, Picocom president, says, “We’re pleased to partner with iCana and create more opportunities for customers. Mobile operators ask us all the time to reduce power consumption and size. We are working with iCana on a new generation of Open RAN radio unit design to enable our mutual customers to do both. We’ve been in discussions and working with iCana behind the scenes for nearly two years, so we’re excited to be able to announce the fruition of our work.”
“We are delighted to work with Picocom on power-efficient small cell RU solutions,” says Glenn Vandevoorde, iCana CEO. “Together, we will leverage the strengths and resources of both companies to provide a solution to the market with superior performance at a cost-competitive price point that can drive the expansion of small cell infrastructure.”
Picocom and iCana were major contributors to the Small Cell Form 5G NR FR1 Reference Design project, the results of which were published in December 2021 – SCF document SCF251.10.01.
This reference platform builds on many of the principles established in that study.
The Picocom/iCana joint 5G NR FR1 small cell RU reference designs are targeted to be generally available in Q4 2023.
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