30.3 A SAW-Less NB-IoT RF Transceiver with Hybrid Polar and On-Chip Switching PA Supporting Power Class 3 Multi-Tone Transmission

The Narrowband-Internet-of-Things (NB-IoT) is a narrowband wireless communication technology that benefits from the advantages of both cellular networks and narrowband transmission. Since the NB-IoT specification was finalized by 3GPP in 2016, several SoCs [1], [2] and an RF transceiver [3] as well as power amplifiers (PA) [4], [5] for NB-IoT have been reported. Highly integrated, low-power and low-cost design with the same transmission power levels as existing LTE systems are required. This paper demonstrates a SAW-less NB-IoT RF transceiver with a hybrid polar transmitter and an on-chip switching PA supporting Power Class 3 multi-tone transmission.