At EuMW 2026, everything RF met engineers from Analog Devices (ADI) – William Thompson from the company’s Telecommunications Product Line and Ian Darrington, Systems Engineer — who demonstrated the company’s latest RF solutions for energy-efficient cellular infrastructure and wideband signal processing. European Microwave Week (EuMW) 2026, held from 4–9 October at ExCeL London, brought together companies and engineers from the RF, microwave, mmWave, and radar industries to showcase developments in high-frequency technology.
In their demonstrations, Thompson and Darrington showcased the Samana (ADRV96xx) radio platform, highlighting its power-saving capabilities for cellular base stations, and the Washington DC1100 system, built around the Apollo AD9084 wideband signal front end. The demonstrations focused on reducing power consumption in radio units and enabling real-time detection and analysis of RF signals across frequencies extending to 18 GHz.
Samana Radio Platform for Energy-Efficient Base Stations
The ADRV906x (Samana) platform is an integrated radio solution for 4G and 5G base stations that combines RF transceivers, digital processing, and energy-saving technologies into a single device. During the demonstration, William Thompson explained that the radio unit can account for roughly 75% of the energy consumption in a cellular base station, making it one of the most important areas for improving overall network efficiency.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WpwEQ1q0fNo
A key challenge for network operators is that traffic demand varies significantly throughout the day. While base station hardware is designed to support peak traffic conditions, it continues consuming power even when network activity is low, such as during overnight periods when only synchronization and reference signals are being transmitted. As a result, a large amount of energy can be consumed while carrying relatively little traffic.
To address this, Analog Devices has incorporated multiple layers of power-management features into the Samana platform. The first layer consists of techniques that improve energy efficiency without reducing network capacity, including Intelligent Discontinuous Transmission (DTX), also referred to as Microsleep, symbol-based envelope tracking, and discontinuous reception. For periods of lower network utilization, the platform also supports light-sleep modes that allow most transceiver chains to be powered down while maintaining essential functions, as well as rapid carrier reconfiguration to adapt radio resources to traffic demand. When network activity drops even further, the platform can transition into deeper sleep states and quickly return to active operation when required.
Intelligent Discontinuous Transmission Reduces Power Amplifier Consumption
A major focus of the demonstration was Intelligent Discontinuous Transmission (DTX), or Microsleep, a feature designed to reduce the energy consumed by the radio’s power amplifier during periods when no user data needs to be transmitted. Power amplifiers are generally optimized for peak traffic conditions and can continue drawing substantial quiescent current even when they are not actively transmitting RF signals. During periods of low network utilization, this can result in significant energy consumption despite limited traffic being carried.
DTX works alongside the scheduler in the distributed unit (DU). The scheduler concentrates user data into available physical resource blocks, creating intervals where no information needs to be transmitted. When the Samana device detects these inactive periods, it can disable the power amplifier in less than a microsecond, preventing energy from being wasted on amplifier idle current. The amplifier is then re-enabled when transmission resumes.
To demonstrate the concept, ADI used a development platform incorporating the Samana device and an RF front end operating at a lower power level than a conventional base station. The system transmitted a waveform with approximately 30% traffic loading while an oscilloscope monitored the power amplifier enable signal. With DTX disabled, the power amplifier remained active continuously, even though the traffic load was relatively low. When DTX was enabled, the amplifier switched off during inactive transmission intervals, increasing efficiency by approximately five percentage points in the demonstrated setup.
The benefits become even more significant in higher-power deployments. ADI reported laboratory results using an 80 W Band 1/Band 3 power amplifier, where enabling DTX reduced energy consumption by approximately 36% compared with operation without the feature. According to Thompson, these savings can directly reduce network operating costs while improving the overall energy efficiency of cellular infrastructure.
Washington DC1100 Platform for Wideband RF Monitoring and Signal Analysis
In a second demonstration, Ian Darrington introduced Analog Devices‘ Washington DC1100 platform, a commercial off-the-shelf development system built around the company’s Apollo AD9084 wideband RF transceiver. The platform is designed to accelerate the development of advanced RF systems by combining high-speed data converters, FPGA-based processing, and signal-analysis capabilities into a single integrated hardware platform.
The Washington platform is intended to do more than simply digitize RF signals. It is designed to continuously monitor large portions of spectrum, identify signals of interest in real time, and then focus processing resources on specific signals that require further analysis. To demonstrate these capabilities, ADI configured the system to monitor frequencies spanning multiple Nyquist zones, extending to approximately 18 GHz.
Hardware-Based Spectrum Monitoring Across a Wide Frequency Range
A key focus of the demonstration was the platform’s ability to perform real-time spectrum awareness directly in hardware. Rather than streaming large quantities of raw data to a host processor for analysis, the Washington platform uses FPGA-based FFT processing to continuously monitor incoming RF signals and identify their locations within the spectrum.
To illustrate the concept, Darrington demonstrated several signal paths operating across different frequency ranges. Two channels operated within the first Nyquist zone, covering frequencies from 0 to 10 GHz, where loopback connections generated signals at 1 GHz and 2.4 GHz. The platform’s hardware FFT engine successfully detected and displayed these signals within the monitored spectrum.
He then demonstrated operation in the second Nyquist zone using a signal generator producing a signal at approximately 12.2 GHz. As the signal generator frequency was adjusted, the Washington platform tracked the change in real time and updated its spectral display accordingly. The demonstration showed how the system can observe and locate signals across a broad frequency range without relying on software-based spectrum processing.
From Spectrum Awareness to Signal-Level Analysis
Beyond identifying signals across a wide bandwidth, the Washington platform can also isolate specific signals for more detailed examination. Once a signal of interest has been detected, the system uses integrated numerically controlled oscillators (NCOs) and digital downconverters (DDCs) to extract a smaller portion of spectrum for focused processing.
During the demonstration, Darrington selected a signal at approximately 16.3 GHz and configured the system to analyze a 125 MHz section of bandwidth surrounding the signal. The selected spectrum was digitally translated to baseband and displayed through an oscilloscope interface, while also being made available through the platform’s high-speed digital interfaces for further downstream processing.
This approach allows the system to combine wideband spectrum surveillance with targeted signal analysis. Rather than processing the entire monitored spectrum at maximum resolution, the platform can first identify a signal of interest, then dynamically allocate resources to examine that signal in greater detail. ADI noted that the current demonstration focused on signal detection and characterization, with additional identification and analysis capabilities planned for future demonstrations.
European Microwave Week 2026 brought together the latest innovations in RF, microwave, mmWave, radar, satellite communications, and test and measurement technologies. For more product launches, technical demonstrations, and developments from the exhibition, click here to view everything RF’s complete EuMW 2026 coverage.