Connectivity Q & A: Reducing Wi-Fi Interference
September 16, 2019
Wi-Fi Tech & Trends is our new blog series that features Qorvo's Tony Testa, Director of Wireless Connectivity Solutions. Each month, Tony will provide insight on the latest Wi-Fi design tips, trends and innovative solutions.
What are the main customer pain points regarding interference?
In the area of 2.4 GHz Wi-Fi, both interference and coexistence are prominent. This is mostly because of the many surrounding signals from our cellular products, such as Bluetooth®, wireless speakers, microwaves, etc. The only way to address this interference is by using RF filter technologies.
How does Qorvo help customers solve these interferences?
Our customers depend on quality of service to sell their products. Products with a high quality of service generate the largest revenue (Average Revenue Per User – ARPU), partly by reducing the costs of service calls, truck rolls and potentially additional hardware/software solutions to solve user experience concerns. For example, some of our digital media customers manufacture and sell indoor/outdoor wireless speakers. It's imperative to have a high quality of service to transmit at long-range and without interruption. Other adjacent signals like Bluetooth or cellular bands must be attenuated to mitigate interference. We direct our customers to use our bandedge and coexistence filters, both in discrete form and in fully integrated front-end modules, to solve the issue.
What does Qorvo recommend to address customer application interference issues?
For 2.4 GHz, coexistence and bandedge filters are required to mitigate unwanted interference. Some of our go-to products we refer customers to are the 885136 bandedge filter and 885128 coexistence filter. These two discrete filter solutions provide low insertion loss, steep skirts and high attenuation in the out-of-band regions. The 885136 has up to 0.8 dB insertion loss and high attenuation/rejection at 2390 MHz, 2483.5 MHz, band 38/40/7 and 41. The 885128 displays a 1.3 typical insertion loss in the Wi-Fi band and bandedge as well as a high rejection in the LTE, band 7, 38, 41 and 40. We also provide fully integrated front-end solutions using LTE coexistence filtering and/or bandedge filtering, such as the QPF7221. This component provides a complete solution in a single front-end package for Wi-Fi 802.11b/g/n/ac/ax systems. With a small form factor of 3 x 4.5 mm and high transmit/receive gains, this front-end module incorporates a high-performance, temperature stable BAW filter. The BAW filter provides state-of-the-art LTE coexistence receive immunity for maximum Wi-Fi range and coverage. We've also recently added the QPF7219 to our iFEMs family. It includes a transmit and receive 802.11ax module that integrates an FCC bandedge BAW filter, regulator, a transmit and receive switch, along with an LNA with bypass.
What makes Qorvo coexistence and band-edge products different than other components in the marketplace?
Regarding bandedge filtering, we are currently the only company providing this type of Wi-Fi BAW filter. As for both bandedge and coexistence filtering, we offer these in discrete and fully integrated front-end modules. We recognize that Wi-Fi market products are becoming smaller and sleeker, which requires all components to be small. We use customer feedback and market information to drive product innovation, such as small form factors, longer Wi-Fi range and mitigation of out-of-band interference.
Tony’s Final Thoughts: Our customers expect products to be plug-and-play and work without extra design effort. This way, they can meet their tight schedules and easily pass regulatory certification. Integrating BAW filter technology in the RF front-end checks off these expectations for customers. Additionally, our filters resolve interference, and when customers place them in their small-sleek products, they can be assured they'll meet stringent design criteria when operating at temperature swings of – 40⁰ C to +105⁰ C, all thanks to our unique BAW technology.
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