Kaben Develops Synthesizer IP for Software Defined Radios in IBM5HP

– Kaben Research Inc., a leading developer of mixed-signal, Intellectual Property (IP) blocks for Wireless, System-on-a-Chip (SoC) manufacturers, announced today that has developed KR-SDS-32-IBM5HP-01 Synthesizer IP block for software defined radio applications in the IBM5HP process.

“Kaben's Delta-Sigma Synthesizer IP block enables SoC manufacturers to integrate multi-mode architectures into a single software defined radio chip.” said Seste Dell'Aera, Kaben's VP Marketing. “Additionally, wireless chip vendors can continually increase the value proposition by integrating additional wireless standards into their existing chip offering.”

In today's wireless market, semiconductor manufacturers are faced with integrating higher levels of functionality and multiple standards. These radios are designed to integrate multiple wireless standards, such as combinations of: multi-mode GSM, WCDMA, CDMA2000, WLAN a/b/g, or Bluetooth. One method of addressing this issue is to employ a software defined radio. A software-defined radio (SDR) system is a radio communication system which uses software for the modulation and demodulation of radio signals.

Software defined radios have issues when integrating multiple standards due to using a single crystal frequency. In a wireless system, Frequency synthesizers are used to convert signals up or down in frequency in both the receiver and transmitter. Problems arise with traditional synthesizers when used in multi-mode systems when the channels of two standards are not multiples of a common crystal reference frequency. Doing so would increase the level of the phase noise or jitter present on the signal. In the transmitter, high phase noise can interfere with nearby wireless systems. In the receiver, high phase noise can reduce the receiver's ability to detect signals.

The Kaben Synthesizer solves these problems in a software defined radio because it has a very fine frequency resolution of 60 Hz from a single 19.2 MHz crystal. At a 3.2 GHz output frequency and a 10 kHz offset the phase noise is -95 dBc/Hz.

About Kaben
Kaben Research is an IP company focused on design, development, and licensing of mixed-signal building blocks that are key to creating future SoC products. The company delivers high-performance, proven IP blocks to SoC manufacturers in the wireless communications market that significantly reduce risk, cost, and time to market. Kaben's IP product offering includes: Frequency Synthesizers, Sampling IF Filters, D/A Converters, and Programmable Clock Generators. For more information, please visit our Web site at www.kabenresearch.com.