- Eridan execs say they are well advanced on delivering their 5G radios
- The small, light radios can be in public, private and 5G AI situations
- The CEO isn't worried about the geopolitical implications for his startup's products
The CEO and CTO of wireless RAN chip startup Eridan is moving towards the commercial stage with their ultra-efficient radios, and their partnership with Skylark Wireless for forthcoming massive multiple input multiple output (MIMO) antenna arrays.
Eridan has developed a small and light radio that is capable of tuning to any frequency between 600 MHz to 4.2 GHz at a peak output power of 0.5 watts for CBRS, according to the company President and CEO Omid Tahernia. This radio can be deployed in a backpack or mounted in a small enclosure. The startup has said that it expects enterprises to be interested in the radio for 5G private wireless use, as well as operators for outdoor wireless applications, he said.
“It’s a wireless network technology that an enabler for a variety of things all the way up to AI,” he added.
“We’re in the midst of our product ramp,” said Tahernia, adding that the 2X2 radio [with 2 transmitters and 2 MIMO receivers] will be available by late Q3 or Q4 this year.
This will be followed by a 4X4 radio after that. “We will have the early prototype towards the end of this year,” the CEO stated. He expects the 4X4 radio to go commercial around the end of next year.
Eridan is working with Skylark Wireless on the MIMO elements of Eridan radios and will presumably be working with the company to scale up massive MIMO over time. “I think massive MIMO is going to have a role, it’s not a answer for every deployment application for sure, but in very dense areas, metropolitan areas like Toyko or Seoul or others, it’s an opportunity for improving spectral efficiency and network capacity,” the CEO said.
First though, samples of the 2X2 radio have to start going out to customers in the next couple of weeks, CTO Doug Kirkpatrick told Fierce. “I can tell you the demand for the sample units is well beyond what our initial capacity is,” he said.
Geopolitical chips
Eridan got $36.8 million CHIPs grant from the National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA) to help fund its silicon development. The grant is “fully funded” according to the CEO.
Even though the Trump administration is not super keen on the Biden-era CHIPs act, the Eridan execs aren’t worried about their grant’s future. “That’s already in process...as long we don’t have any other initiatives that disturb the current regime, DEI or alike, which we have no intention of being involved with, I think we’re good,” the CEO said.
So what about tariffs?
“My own personal forecast is that all these things will settle out,” Tahernia said. He expects a baseline tariff that “will add some to the cost” but expects “it will be somewhat insignificant given our value proposition.”
Tahernia noted that a portion of the tariff costs are going to be absorbed by the supplier. However, he said that Eridan is monitoring the situation.