IN Brief:
- The CMX90A002 covers 860 to 960 MHz, including European 868 MHz and North American 915 MHz ISM bands.
- Its 3 × 3 mm package occupies about 44% less PCB area than CML Micro’s existing 4 × 4 mm devices.
- A 1.9 V to 4.5 V supply range allows the amplifier to work across different low-voltage power architectures.
CML Micro has introduced the CMX90A002 power amplifier for sub-GHz wireless designs, reducing the package to 3 × 3 mm while covering 860 to 960 MHz and accepting supply voltages from 1.9 V to 4.5 V.
The frequency span covers the 868 MHz licence exempt band used widely in Europe and the 915 MHz band common in North America, allowing the same amplifier family to be considered across multiple regional radio designs. CML Micro is positioning the part for smart metering, automatic meter reading, wireless sensor networks, IoT modules and industrial monitoring equipment where PCB area and battery architecture can constrain the RF front end.
Compared with the company’s existing 4 × 4 mm amplifier devices, the new QFN package reduces occupied board area by about 44%. The saving has to be considered alongside the matching components, filtering, antenna feed, power decoupling and transceiver that surround the amplifier, while the RF layout still has to control impedance and limit unwanted coupling.
A 1.9 V to 4.5 V supply range allows the device to operate across primary cells, rechargeable batteries, regulated rails and other low-voltage power architectures. That flexibility reduces the need to select a different amplifier solely because the voltage available to the RF stage changes between products in the same platform family.
CML Micro says the CMX90A002 provides RF and thermal performance comparable with its established CMX90A003 and CMX90A004 family while occupying the smaller footprint. Maintaining those characteristics as the package shrinks is significant because a smaller device has less surface area available for heat transfer, particularly when the amplifier is driven for longer transmit intervals rather than short bursts.
The 860 to 960 MHz range also allows one hardware platform to cover the principal sub-GHz ISM allocations on either side of the Atlantic, although antenna, filtering and regulatory requirements still differ between regions. A common amplifier can therefore reduce component variation without turning a European 868 MHz radio automatically into a compliant 915 MHz product.
The amplifier sits between the radio transceiver and the antenna network, increasing transmit power where the transceiver output alone is insufficient for the required link budget. In smart metering and industrial sensor deployments, additional margin can help where signals cross walls, plant structures or buried enclosures, but usable range still depends on antenna efficiency, receiver sensitivity, local interference, data rate and regulatory power limits.
Efficiency also affects the thermal and battery behaviour of the node. Power that is not converted into useful RF output becomes heat or other system loss, so an amplifier used in a battery product has to be considered together with transmit duty cycle rather than judged only at maximum output. CML Micro’s emphasis on maintaining the thermal and RF behaviour of the larger family positions the smaller package primarily as a route to reduced PCB area.
The device arrives during European Microwave Week 2026 at ExCeL London, where CML Micro is showing the CMX90A002 alongside its wider RF and microwave semiconductor portfolio. Its specified frequency range places it between low-power sub-GHz transceivers and larger RF power devices rather than in broadband microwave applications.
Reducing package size does not remove the need to preserve a controlled RF path, adequate grounding and a reliable thermal route into the PCB. Matching-network tolerances, antenna behaviour and the final enclosure can still determine whether the complete radio achieves the output, efficiency and emissions performance predicted from the amplifier specification.
The combination of a 3 × 3 mm footprint, coverage of the 868 MHz and 915 MHz regions and operation from 1.9 V to 4.5 V gives designers scope to reuse the same power-amplifier family across several low-power wireless products while adjusting the surrounding matching, filtering and antenna network for each regional implementation.
