Eridan Communications – Building 5G Radios to Enable Seamless Wireless Connectivity Everywhere in the World

By Brent MacDonald – Principal @ Rising Tide

Eridan Communications is developing a next-generation software-defined radio amplifier technology. The Company’s transmitter technology enables industry leading single radio capabilities and allows for multiple radios to work in combination to extend bandwidth or power. By combining advanced gallium nitride devices, radical amplifier circuit design, and novel system architecture, the Company is enabling a new level of frequency agility, spectrum, and power efficiency, with applications from Mobile Handsets to Base Stations and from Vehicle-to-Everything to Internet of Things.

The Eridan MIRACLE RF Front End Module rewrites the cost equation for 5G – its fully digital wireless signal generation enables 2x as much data to be sent in the same bandwidth, reduces interference with neighboring bands, and consumes 5-10x less power to transmit the same amount of data.

Eridan recently announced the launch of their ‘MIRACLE Power Transceiver’, the world’s first digital sampling radio for 4G, 5G, and beyond. The MIRACLE Power Transceiver produces sub-6GHz cellular signals at full transmit power, eliminating the need for linear amplifiers. These traditional linear power amplifiers are among the most power-hungry components of a 5G radio, and the biggest sources of noise.

"Right now, every cellular network in the world depends on power amplifiers, which are a linear technology. Trying to use a linear technology to handle digital information is always inefficient – it's why we don't use vacuum tubes in our computers anymore"

says Doug Kirkpatrick, CEO of Eridan. The Company has garnered traction in their targeted US Government and US Department of Defense (DOD) markets.

A fully digital RF Front End module like the MIRACLE has many applications as found below. The most relevant is 5G, with the implementation of Small Cells and Massive MIMO (Multiple Input, Multiple Output).

Internet of Things: Achieving global distribution for IoT devices can require a lot of SKUs. Because the Eridan module can be tuned in software, a single hardware model can cover the globe, vastly simplifying design, manufacturing, and inventory management.

Defense and Public Safety: Military and public safety personnel in the field can carry as many as five radios to collaborate across agencies. This equipment is heavy, expensive, and confusing to operate in stressful circumstances. With a software tuning range that covers all sub-6 GHz frequencies, the Eridan module can enable a single device to communicate with everyone, reducing equipment carried and simplifying coordination.

Satellite Communications: When every ounce and inch are critical to design, the MIRACLE provides a multi-purpose module that also reduces power consumption. A single Eridan module can be tuned from 600 – 3700 MHz, at power, and with 2 – 5x power efficiency advantage over competing alternative.

And Beyond: Across homes, roads, farms, factories, cities, and beyond, the range of devices connecting to cellular networks is expanding rapidly. Eridan’s flexible, power-efficient module is suited to a broad range of connected applications, in devices from smartphones to connected cars. Because the MIRACLE module consumes 5-10x less power per GB transmitted, it is especially suited anywhere that battery performance is at a premium.

Eridan's Unique Transceiver Architecture

As the U.S. and other countries looks beyond 5G to Next-G and dynamic spectrum allocation, Eridan's tuning range – currently covering 600-3700MHz – and millisecond-level frequency switching, could ultimately grow existing sub-6GHz capacity by 50-100x. The founder team is experienced, with 12 start-up companies among them. All founders have been CEOs and CTOs in past startups. Among them, more than 400 U.S. patents have been issued and many products have been brought to market. Eridan is building transformational wireless technology that makes possible fast, reliable, wireless connectivity, anywhere in the world – and for every person on Earth.