iCana has launched their indoor small cell RF Front-End reference design with AMD Zynq™ UltraScale+™ RFSoC DFE ZCU670 Evaluation Kit

As 5G shifts networks to higher frequencies, the wireless infrastructure requires comprehensive small cell densification to deliver high speeds, low latency, and multiple connections.

iCana - AMD Partnership

iCana has since 2020 developed a complete line-up of RF components for 5G NR FR1 small cells and O-RU’s. The main target for the development of iCana’s products is to reduce the power consumption, complexity, size, and cost of the RF Front-End while maintaining high performance and reliability, to meet operators demand for deploying 5G small cells.

At IMS 2023 in San Diego, we showcased the reference design with our partner AMD. In the design, iCana’s RF FR1 Front-End 4T4R reference board interfaces directly to AMD Zynq™ UltraScale+™ RFSoC DFE ZCU670 Evaluation Kit. The Zynq RFSoC DFE ZCU670 Evaluation Kit is an excellent 5G wireless test platform for rapid prototyping of RF applications and integrates key functionality required to build an O-RU including FHI, O-RAN processing, Low PHY (split 7.2 defined by O-RAN) and the typical DFE processing. In addition, it is a full integration of the direct RF sampling transceiver. Together, iCana and AMD hope to lower the barrier for small cell deployments across the globe and fuel small cell densification.

The reference design is highly integrated with iCana’s RF Front-End 4T4R reference board with four transmit, receive, and observation receiver paths interfacing directly to AMD’s ZCU670 evaluation board. The RF Front-End reference board plugs in directly to the AMD ZCU670 evaluation board and allows the end-user to perform a complete 5G NR FR1 system evaluation, including transmitting, receiving, and real-time DPD linearization. All the active RF components are from iCana product lines including Power Amplifier, Differential Gain Amplifier, Switch, and Receiver Front-End Module covering all major 5G NR FR1 bands with pin-to-pin compatibility.

The hardware performance is verified by using the standard 5G NR FR1 waveform. Equipped with standard RF connectors, the RF Front-End board can easily connect with antennas or standard instruments for easy validation. The performance is summarized below:

  • Transmit mode, auto gain control settings for high gain receive mode, and low gain receive mode
  • Instantaneous bandwidth up to 200 MHz
  • Transmit output power >26 dBm (without antenna filter) achieving ACLR <-50 dBc based on 100 MHz waveform of 5G NR TM 3.1, 8.5 dB PAR, with the use of AMD DPD linearization
  • Transmit output power >24 dBm (with antenna filter) achieving ACLR <-48 dBc based on 2×100 MHz waveform of 5G NR TM 3.1, 8.5 dB PAR, with the use of AMD DPD linearization
  • Error Vector Magnitude (EVM): <2%

The reference design of iCana’s RF FR1 Front-End 4T4R reference board and AMD Zynq™ UltraScale+™ RFSoC DFE ZCU670 helps customers reduce power consumption, complexity, size, and cost while boosting performance and reliability, to accelerate our customers’ time to market, and power 5G applications for small cell infrastructure.

A live demo of the reference design will be showcased by AMD at MWC Shanghai. To learn more about the reference design or schedule a meeting with us, please contact us at sales@icana-rf.com.

MWC Shanghai Exhibition Info

  • Location: Shanghai New International Expo Centre (Hall N1, D122)
  • Time:
    28 June (Wed.) 09:00-17:00
    29 June (Thu.) 09:00-17:00
    30 June (Fri.) 09:00-16:00

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