What is AFE | Analog Front End basics

This page covers AFE (Analog Front End) basics. It mentions Analog Front End IC Vendors/Manufacturers.

AFE-Analog Front End

The figure-1 depicts typical modules in analog front end. As shown it consists of RF LNA and Downconverter in the receive chain, While RF PA and Upconverter in the transmit chain.

Analog Front end interfaced with RF antenna on one side and with DAC/ADC on the other side.

Analog Front end generates zero IF or low IF. The baseband data is processed by algorithms running on FPGA or DSP.

Wide variety of sensors are used as analog front end which is connected with antenna and micro-controllers for specific applications. These sensors convert sensed input parameter (e.g. temperature) to the other output parameter (e.g. voltage or current). Refer Sensors or transducers for more information.

Analog Front End IC Vendors

Following are the vendors or manufacturers of Analog Front End ICs.
• Maxim Integrated Inc.
• Analog Devices
• TI
• Microchip
• NXP

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