30 March 2016

Peregrine's dual upstream/downstream-band RF switches designed into multiple DOCSIS 3.1-certified cable modems

Peregrine Semiconductor Corp of San Diego, CA, USA – a fabless provider of radio-frequency integrated circuits (RFICs) based on silicon-on-insulator (SOI) – says that its high-linearity RF switches have been designed into multiple DOCSIS 3.1-certified cable modems. CableLabs, the R&D consortium that develops the DOCSIS specification, has certified the first DOCSIS 3.1 cable modems. Of these, Peregrine's UltraCMOS PE42722 and PE42723 RF switches have been designed into the cable modems that feature a band-select feature. The PE42722 and PE42723 are claimed to be the only RF switches that enable dual upstream/downstream bands to reside in the same consumer premise equipment (CPE) device.

Peregrine says that before it began offering the PE42722 and PE42723, CPE devices — such as set-top boxes, cable modems and home gateways — could only support one upstream and downstream band. Extremely high linearity is required to enable and support a dual-band architecture. Peregrine offers what are claimed to be the only RF switches with the required high linearity to meet the standard. By enabling a dual-band architecture, CPEs can comply with the DOCSIS 3.1 cable industry standard, and multi-service operators (MSOs) have the flexibility to offer their customers new and expanded services. MSOs also benefit from the switches supporting both DOCSIS 3.0 and 3.1 technologies, allowing a simple and cost-effective transition to DOCSIS 3.1 service.

"As the world-wide cable industry transitions from DOCSIS 3.0 to 3.1 technologies, MSOs need to future-proof their CPE devices with higher flexibility in addition to backward compatibility," says Duncan Pilgrim, VP & general manager of Peregrine's high-performance analog (HPA) business unit. "Peregrine's high-linearity RF switches rise to the challenge and deliver a key selling feature for cable modem vendors," he adds. "By offering a dual-band architecture, our switches enable a simple transition from DOCSIS 3.0 to 3.1 service."

See related items:

Peregrine's new RF switch exceeds linearity requirements for dual-band DOCSIS 3.1

Peregrine launches high-linearity SPDT RF switch enabling dual-band architecture for DOCSIS 3.1 cable CPE devices

Tags: Peregrine SOI RF switches

Visit: www.psemi.com