Broadcom Inc., a company that designs, develops and supplies semiconductor and infrastructure software solutions, has announced the launch of BroadPeak™, a radio digital front-end (DFE) SoC device for 5G massive multiple-input multiple-output (MIMO) and remote radio head (RRH) applications. The device integrates 5nm CMOS DFE and ADC/DAC blocks on a single chip and delivers up to 40% power reduction compared to existing solutions for massive MIMO and RRHs. It operates across a frequency range from 400 MHz to 8.5 GHz and is designed to support 5G Advanced and 6G wireless infrastructure.
Massive MIMO is used in 5G networks to increase coverage, capacity and throughput. BroadPeak is designed to meet the technical requirements for the upcoming 5G Advanced standard using the n104 band from 6.425 to 7.125 GHz, as well as 6G standards using the upper mid-band from 7 to 8.5 GHz.
BroadPeak BCM85021 Highlights
- 32T32R8FB (additional SKUs for 8T8R2FB and 16T16R4FB)
- RF carrier frequency range of 400 MHz to 8.5 GHz
- Integrated digital predistortion, carrier aggregation, crest factor reduction, antenna front-end, digital down-conversion, digital up-conversion, gain control and filtering
- iBW up to 860 MHz
- oBW up to 800 MHz
- ACLR with DPD better than -50 dBc
- Support for carrier aggregation
- DPD learning time 100x faster than typical reference
- ADC/DAC sampling rates up to 19.6 GS/s
- Receivers (RX): 100 MHz to 860 MHz, 1.6 GHz
- TX and FB: 200 MHz to 1.6 GHz, 3.2 GHz
- Gain control range: RX/FB: 30 dB, TX: 25 dB
“With 5G New Radio expanding into the 6 GHz spectrum and above to fuel the surge of AI and data-heavy applications, the infrastructure behind it must evolve. Our next-generation Massive MIMO SoCs are engineered to deliver the uncompromising linearity and power efficiency required to power the future of connectivity,” said Vijay Janapaty, vice president and general manager of Broadcom’s Physical Layer Products Division. “The BroadPeak SoC integrates DFE and AFE with high-linearity data converters at 8.5 GHz, delivering up to 40% greater efficiency for next-generation base stations.”
“As mobile networks advance toward 5G Advanced and 6G, the industry requires deep, open, and highly optimized partnerships across silicon platforms,” said Raghib Hussain, President and CEO of Altera. “Our collaboration with Broadcom and the successful interoperability testing between Altera Agilex™ 7 FPGAs and Broadcom BroadPeak SoCs validate a scalable, high-performance foundation for next-generation radio platforms, enabling equipment manufacturers and operators to innovate with flexibility and confidence.”
“As RAN evolution demands greater intelligence, production-grade software is now as vital as the underlying silicon. By co-developing the BroadPeak SDK with Broadcom, Hitachi GlobalLogic is simplifying hardware complexity and exposing advanced DFE capabilities. We are ensuring that next-gen mMIMO, RRH and Open RAN architectures are not just innovative, but deployment-ready at scale,” said Siba Satapathy, Chief Growth & Transformation Officer, Hitachi GlobalLogic.
Broadcom has started shipping samples of BroadPeak BCM85021 to early access customers and partners. Samples and pricing are available through Broadcom sales representatives.