“A completely new integrated electronic circuit has been developed for the transmitter to enable a notable increase in the frequency bandwidth. This makes the data transmission capacity of the base stations up to 20 times larger,” said Aalto Professor Jussi Ryynänen.
“The data transfer bandwidth of 4G transmitters is approximately 20MHz, whereas our digital 5G transmitter can achieve a bandwidths of up to 400MHz.”
The approach has been to make the transmitter as digital as possible; the signal is only converted to analogue at the final amplification stage. The circuit also enables flexible modification of the transmitted signal
In the past, says the team, flexibility has been realised by using parallel transmitters that can be turned on or off, depending on the location of the base station and the required data transfer bandwidth.
“The 5G base station transmitter we have developed enables new possibilities for modifying and programming the transmitted signal,” said Tampere University Professor Mikko Valkama. “The quality of the transmitted signal can be enhanced and we can freely choose the frequencies the transmitter uses without parallel radio transmitters.”