Eta Devices, Inc. is launching the world’s most efficient power amplifier for mobile base stations at the 2013 Mobile World Congress in Barcelona, Spain from February 24-28.

“We are very pleased to introduce the world’s first power amplifier for mobile base stations achieving 70%+ efficiency for 4G LTE,” said Mattias Åström, CEO of Eta Devices. “In comparison, the best available competing solution, based on Doherty PAs, can only deliver up to 45% efficiency. This means that we bring a 50% increase in efficiency to the market and this is truly game-changing for the mobile industry.”

Eta Devices is a spin-off from the electrical engineering department at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) and the new patented technology is known as Asymmetric Multilevel Outphasing (AMO). The 50% increase in efficiency by the firm’s AMO power amplifiers is made possible by a solution to the classic trade-off in mobile communications between efficiency and linearity.

“Eta Devices solution is a completely new architecture exploiting the extreme performance capabilities of GaN switching PAs” said MIT Prof. Joel Dawson, CTO of Eta Devices. “Implementing our technology in mobile base stations is analogous to replacing incandescent light bulbs with much more efficient LED lights. Most of the energy is now put to productive work instead of wasted as heat.”

On a global level, mobile networks consume approximately 120TWh of electricity per year – equal to two days of worldwide power consumption.-- with 50-80% of the power consumed by the base stations’ power amplifiers and associated components. Eta Devices’ solution has the potential to reduce power consumption by 50% which could save mobile operators around $18 billion per year in utility costs.

“Beyond generating cost savings and performance benefits for mobile operators, our technology makes a significant contribution to a more sustainable planet” said Åström, CEO of Eta Devices. “If Eta Devices’ solution is implemented by mobile operators around the world, we would see a reduction in greenhouse gas emissions of around 36 million tons carbon dioxide equivalents per year. This is as much CO2 as generated by 4.5 million American homes per year.”

The solution launched at the 2013 Mobile World Congress in Barcelona is focused on bringing disruptive benefits to the mobile base station market. Eta Devices is also in the process of developing a suite of low-power solutions for smartphones and tablet computers.

About Eta Devices

Eta Devices’ disruptive technology solves the key power challenges in the mobile communications industry. In base stations, this leads to significantly reduced power consumption and smaller cabinets. For handsets, battery life is considerably increased and multiband communications can be enabled at a fraction of the cost and footprint; this makes it possible to use the same handset model all over the world. Eta Devices’ technology also contributes towards a sustainable world by generating substantial carbon footprint reductions. Based on breakthrough research from MIT, Eta Devices is a fabless semiconductor company headquartered in Cambridge, MA with an R&D office in Stockholm, Sweden. For additional product and company information, please refer to www.etadevices.com.

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