• Sierra single-chip radio SoC enables scalable FDD Massive MIMO with on-chip high-performance PIM cancellation

Company Website: https://www.maxlinear.com/
BARCELONA, Spain -- (Business Wire)

MaxLinear, Inc. (Nasdaq: MXL), a leading provider of wireless infrastructure solutions, today announced that it will demonstrate its newest advancements in RAN radio technologies at MWC Barcelona 2026. Attendees visiting meeting room 2L8MR in Hall 2 will see demonstrations of how MaxLinear’s Sierra single-chip radio SoC helps OEMs develop new innovative Open RAN Radio Units (O-RUs) addressing the key challenges faced by Mobile Network Operators (MNO). MaxLinear will showcase how Sierra’s embedded Passive Intermodulation (PIM) cancellation technology enables development of smaller and lighter Frequency Division Duplex (FDD) Massive MIMO O-RUs as well as several new highly compact and power-efficient O-RUs powered by Sierra.

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Sierra Radio SoC Enables FDD mMIMO with Embedded Active PIM Cancellation

Uplink traffic is rapidly becoming the next major network bottleneck as user behavior shifts toward high-bandwidth uploads such as live video and social content. MNOs are pursuing FDD Massive MIMO as a targeted way to address uplink-constrained networks. However, FDD Massive MIMO radio unit size, weight, and cost have remained key barriers to deployment.

“Uplink traffic is growing faster than downlink traffic and will accelerate in the era of Physical AI. There’s a strong need for uplink capacity in the critical low bands where FDD mMIMO can make all kinds of devices work better. This integration makes FDD Massive MIMO more practical for real-world upgrades,” said Joe Madden, Principal Analyst at Mobile Experts.

Sierra helps address these challenges at the architecture level with embedded PIM cancellation. In FDD systems, downlink transmission generates PIM products that fall directly into the uplink receive band and reduce receiver throughput. Traditional FDD systems use high performance cavity filters to minimize PIM effects, but these filters are large, heavy, and expensive. By being able to cancel up to 20dB of PIM on each receive path with advanced signal processing, Sierra enables the use of smaller, lighter and cheaper ceramic filters instead of bulky cavity filters.

“Uplink demand is rising faster than network capacity, driving operators to look at FDD Massive MIMO as a practical way to relieve uplink congestion. But OEMs are challenged to deliver that capability without excessive cost and complexity,” said Puneet Sethi, Senior Vice President of MaxLinear’s Network Infrastructure & Carrier BU. “Sierra is already a proven carrier grade solution for single- and multi-band macro radio units. Now, by using PIM cancellation to eliminate the need for bulky cavity filters, Sierra is enabling OEMs to build simpler, lighter FDD Massive MIMO radios that operators can deploy at scale to address the uplink demand challenge.”

At Mobile World Congress, MaxLinear will demonstrate these capabilities live, highlighting Sierra’s PIM cancellation performance and showcasing multiple Sierra-driven radios. The demonstrations will take place in Hall 2, meeting room 2L8MR.

For more information on Sierra, visit www.maxlinear.com/sierra.

About MaxLinear, Inc.

MaxLinear, Inc. (Nasdaq: MXL) is a leading provider of radio frequency (RF), analog, digital, and mixed-signal integrated circuits for access and connectivity, wired and wireless infrastructure, and industrial and multi-market applications. MaxLinear is headquartered in Carlsbad, California.

For more information, please visit www.maxlinear.com.

Cautionary Note About Forward-Looking Statements

This press release contains forward-looking statements within the meaning of Section 27A of the Securities Act of 1933, as amended, and Section 21E of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, as amended. Forward-looking statements include, among others, statements regarding the capabilities of MaxLinear’s RAN radio technologies, the market opportunity for MaxLinaer’s Sierra product and statements by MaxLinear’s Senior Vice President of MaxLinear’s Network Infrastructure & Carrier BU. These forward-looking statements involve known and unknown risks, uncertainties, and other factors that may cause actual results to be materially different from any future results expressed or implied by the forward-looking statements and our future financial performance and operating results forecasts generally. Forward-looking statements are based on management’s current, preliminary expectations and are subject to various risks and uncertainties. In particular, our future operating results are substantially dependent on our assumptions about market trends and conditions. Additional risks and uncertainties affecting our business, future operating results and financial condition include, without limitation, risks relating to: the capabilities of MaxLinear’s technology; our terminated merger with Silicon Motion and related arbitration and class action complaint and the risks related to potential payment of damages; the effect of intense and increasing competition; increased tariffs, export controls or imposition of other trade barriers; impacts of global economic conditions; the cyclical nature of the semiconductor industry; a significant variance in our operating results and impact on volatility in our stock price, and our ability to sustain our current level of revenue, which has previously declined, and/or manage future growth effectively, and the impact of excess inventory in the channel on our customers’ expected demand for certain of our products and on our revenue; escalating trade wars, military conflicts and other geopolitical and economic tensions among the countries in which we conduct business; international geopolitical and military conflicts; our ability to obtain or retain government authorization to export certain of our products or technology; the loss of, or a significant reduction in orders from major customers; legal proceedings or potential violations of regulations; information technology failures; a decrease in the average selling prices of our products; failure to penetrate new applications and markets; development delays and consolidation trends in our industry; inability to make substantial and productive research and development investments; delays or expenses caused by undetected defects or bugs in our products; substantial quarterly and annual fluctuations in our revenue and operating results; failure to timely develop and introduce new or enhanced products; order and shipment uncertainties and differences between our estimates of customer demand and product mix and our actual results; failure to accurately predict our future revenue and appropriately budget expenses; lengthy and expensive customer qualification processes; customer product plan cancellations; failure to maintain compliance with government regulations; failure to attract and retain qualified personnel; any adverse impact of rising interest rates on us, our customers, and our distributors and related demand; risks related to compliance with privacy, data protection and cybersecurity laws and regulations; risks related to conforming our products to industry standards; risks related to business acquisitions and investments; claims of intellectual property infringement; our ability to protect our intellectual property; security vulnerabilities of our products; use of open source software in our products; failure to manage our relationships with, or negative impacts from, third parties; and future decisions relating to our stock repurchase program.

In addition to these risks and uncertainties, investors should review the risks and uncertainties contained in our filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), including our Current Reports on Form 8-K, as well as the information to be set forth under the caption "Risk Factors" in MaxLinear's Annual Report on Form 10-K for the year ended December 31, 2025. All forward-looking statements are based on the estimates, projections and assumptions of management as of January 29, 2026, and MaxLinear is under no obligation (and expressly disclaims any such obligation) to update or revise any forward-looking statements whether as a result of new information, future events, or otherwise.

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Contacts:

MaxLinear Press Contact:

Debbie Brandenburg
Sr. Marketing Communications Manager
Tel: +1 669.265.6083
dbrandenburg@maxlinear.com

Source: MaxLinear, Inc.