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PASSIVE
COMPONENTS
Issue
News Report Design Feature Product Technology

Digital Attenuators Shave Spurious In Surveying Miniature
Tame Amplitude Dual-Mode BPFs Frequency Synthesizers
VIEW ENGINEERING TV AT ENGINEERINGTV.COM

The First Name in
C E L E B R A T I N G 60 Y E A R S

aAs RFIC f
e first G so
d eve loped th as the genesi ing
ch w e
s, M /A-COM Te R SPDT switch products still b
0 T/
arly 199 s. This switch
In the e set application of revolutionary
for hand nding history
ta
a long-s d today.
innovate

new GaAS pHEMT microwave
switches minimize gate lag times from
almost 30 microseconds to less than
20 nanoseconds by means of a patent-
pending pHEMT technology.
This dramatically shortens the duration
of a switch’s settling time — to the
benefit of systems requiring tight
control of time-domain parameters,
such as packet-based communications
networks and radar systems.
Available in a line of
switches from 10 MHz
to 20 GHz.
Part Number Freq (GHz) IL P1dB Isol

MASW
W-008
8899 DC--3 0.4 28 27
7
MASW
W-008
8899 DC--3 0.4 28 27
7
MASW
WSS01
192 DC--3 0.255 28.5 20
0
MASW
W-008
8895 DC--3.5 0.555 35 22
2
MASW
W-007
7587 DC--4 0.8 39.5 30
0
MASW
W-007
7107 DC--8 0.5 30 30
0
MASW
W-008
8543 DC--4 0.7 25 65
5*
MASW
W-007
7588 DC--6 0.8 40 28
8
MASW
W-007
7921 DC--7 0.655 39 26
6
For information on switches and other products from MASW
W-009
9590 DC--8 0.6 32 23
3
M/A-COM Technology Solutions, visit macomtech.com MASW
W-008
8322 DC--20 1.9*** 30 40
0**
* at 2.11 GHz ** at 20 GH
Hz

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NewsReport
33 | Digital Attenuators Master Amplitude In MW Systems
As applications ranging from communications to defense place new
demands on tight amplitude control, microwave engineers increasingly
rely on digital attenuators for precision and linearity.
38 | RF Primer
Gauge Power Limits On Passive Components
98 COVER STORY
By avoiding high insertion loss and impedance junctions in passive
components, high power levels can be transferred without unnecessary
buildup of heat or creation of damaging hotspots.
DesignFeature
Speedy Switches Minimize
Gate Lags 57 | Tune Out Spurious In Dual-Mode BPFs
These novel GaAS pHEMT micro- By optimizing a microstrip filter’s coupling structure, it is possible to
achieve small size and wide rejection bandwidth while accounting for
wave switches minimize gate lag fabrication tolerances.
times from almost 30 μs to less than
20 ns by applying a patent-pending 66 | Analyze Phase Noise In A Sampled PLL, Part 3
semiconductor process. The final installment of this three-part series on phase noise in sampled-
PLLs examines the effects of noise sources, including the tunable and
reference oscillators, on overall synthesizer performance.
Departments
p 72 | Forecast Rain Effects On Microwave Links, Part 1
13 48 80 | Image-Reject Mixer Arms Direct-Conversion Receivers
Feedback Company News 90 | Semiconductors Simplify Direct-Conversion Design
17 50
Editorial People
ProductTechnology
22 52 104 | IndustryInsights
The Front End Educational Suppliers Enhance Substrate Performance
Meetings Designers working at microwave frequencies have a long list of circuit-
26
board materials to choose from, some tailored for specific applications,
Microwaves in 54 such as amplifiers and antennas.
Europe R&D Roundup
28 96
105 | ProductTrends
Synthesizers Shave Size, Not Performance
Web Table of Application Notes The latest generation of compact frequency synthesizers is matching the
Contents small size of discrete-component oscillators while providing fast tuning
110 speeds and low phase noise.
42 Editor’s Choice
Crosstalk
112 SpecialSection*
46 Infocenter
focus
Financial News Starts after page 31
SpecialSupplement*
$BCMFT$POOFDUPST Starts after page 62
MARCH 2010 ■ Microwaves & RF visit www.mwrf.com 5

OCTAVE BAND LOW NOISE AMPLIFIERS
Modeld l No. Freq (GHz) Gain (dB) MIN Noise Figure g (dB) Power -out @ P1-dBB 3rdd Order d ICP VSWR
CA01-2110 0.5-1.0 28 1.0 MAX,, 0.7 TYP +10 MIN +20 dBm
d 2.0:1
CA12-2110 1.0-2.0 30 1.0 MAX,, 0.7 TYP +10 MIN +20 dBm 2.0:1
CA24-2111 2.0-4.0 29 1.1 MAX,, 0.95 TYP +10 MIN +20 dBm 2.0:1
CA48-2111 4.0-8.0 29 1.3 MAX,, 1.0 TYP +10 MIN +20 dBm 2.0:1
CA812-3111 8.0-12.0 27 1.6 MAX,, 1.4 TYP +10 MIN +20 dBm 2.0:1
CA1218-4111 12.0-18.0 25 1.9 MAX,, 1.7 TYP +10 MIN +20 dBm 2.0:1
CA1826-2110 18.0-26.5 32 3.0 MAX, 2.5 TYP +10 MIN +20 dBm 2.0:1
NARROW BAND LOW NOISE AND MEDIUM POWER AMPLIFIERS
CCA01-2111
0 2 0.4 - 0
0 0.5 28 0.6 MAX,, 0.4
0 0 TYP +10
0 MIN +20
20 dBm
d 20
2.0:1
CA01-2113 0.8 - 1.0 28 0.6 MAX,, 0.4 TYP +10 MIN +20 dBm 2.0:1
CA12-3117 1.2 - 1.6 25 0.6 MAX,, 0.4 TYP +10 MIN +20 dBm 2.0:1
CA23-3111 2.2 - 2.4 30 0.6 MAX,, 0.45 TYP +10 MIN +20 dBm 2.0:1
CA23-3116 2.7 - 2.9 29 0.7 MAX,, 0.5 TYP +10 MIN +20 dBm 2.0:1
CA34-2110 3.7 - 4.2 28 1.0 MAX,, 0.5 TYP +10 MIN +20 dBm 2.0:1
CA56-3110 5.4 - 5.9 40 1.0 MAX,, 0.5 TYP +10 MIN +20 dBm 2.0:1
CA78-4110 7.25 - 7.75 32 1.2 MAX,, 1.0 TYP +10 MIN +20 dBm 2.0:1
CA910-3110 9.0 - 10.6 25 1.4 MAX,, 1.2 TYP +10 MIN +20 dBm 2.0:1
CA1315-3110 13.75 - 15.4 25 1.6 MAX,, 1.4 TYP +10 MIN +20 dBm 2.0:1
CA12-3114 1.35 - 1.85 30 4.0 MAX,, 3.0 TYP +33 MIN +41 dBm 2.0:1
CA34-6116 3.1 - 3.5 40 4.5 MAX,, 3.5 TYP +35 MIN +43 dBm 2.0:1
CA56-5114 5.9 - 6.4 30 5.0 MAX,, 4.0 TYP +30 MIN +40 dBm 2.0:1
CA812-6115 8.0 - 12.0 30 4.5 MAX,, 3.5 TYP +30 MIN +40 dBm 2.0:1
CA812-6116 8.0 - 12.0 30 5.0 MAX,, 4.0 TYP +33 MIN +41 dBm 2.0:1
CA1213-7110 12.2 - 13.25 28 6.0 MAX,, 5.5 TYP +33 MIN +42 dBm 2.0:1
CA1415-7110 14.0 - 15.0 30 5.0 MAX,, 4.0 TYP +30 MIN +40 dBm 2.0:1
CA1722-4110 17.0 - 22.0 25 3.5 MAX,, 2.8 TYP +21 MIN +31 dBm 2.0:1
ULTRA-BROADBAND & MULTI-OCTAVE BAND AMPLIFIERS
Model
d l No. Freq (GHz) Gain (dB) MIN Noise Figure (dB) Power -out @ P1-dBB 3rdd Order d ICP VSWR
CA0102-3111 0.1-2.0 28 1.6 Max,, 1.2 TYP +10 MIN +20 ddBm 2.0:1
CA0106-3111 0.1-6.0 28 1.9 Max,, 1.5 TYP +10 MIN +20 dBm 2.0:1
CA0108-3110 0.1-8.0 26 2.2 Max,, 1.8 TYP +10 MIN +20 dBm 2.0:1
CA0108-4112 0.1-8.0 32 3.0 MAX,, 1.8 TYP +22 MIN +32 dBm 2.0:1
CA02-3112 0.5-2.0 36 4.5 MAX,, 2.5 TYP +30 MIN +40 dBm 2.0:1
CA26-3110 2.0-6.0 26 2.0 MAX,, 1.5 TYP +10 MIN +20 dBm 2.0:1
CA26-4114 2.0-6.0 22 5.0 MAX,, 3.5 TYP +30 MIN +40 dBm 2.0:1
CA618-4112 6.0-18.0 25 5.0 MAX,, 3.5 TYP +23 MIN +33 dBm 2.0:1
CA618-6114 6.0-18.0 35 5.0 MAX,, 3.5 TYP +30 MIN +40 dBm 2.0:1
CA218-4116 2.0-18.0 30 3.5 MAX,, 2.8 TYP +10 MIN +20 dBm 2.0:1
CA218-4110 2.0-18.0 30 5.0 MAX,, 3.5 TYP +20 MIN +30 dBm 2.0:1
CA218-4112 2.0-18.0 29 5.0 MAX, 3.5 TYP +24 MIN +34 dBm 2.0:1
LIMITING AMPLIFIERS
Model
d l No. Freqq (GHz) Input
p Dynamic
y Range
g Output
p Power Range
g Psat Power Flatness l ddB VSWR
CLA24-4001 2.0 - 4.0 -28 to +10 dBm +7 to +11 dBm +/-
/ 1.5 MAX 2.0:1
CLA26-8001 2.0 - 6.0 -50 to +20 dBm +14 to +18 dBm +/-
/ 1.5 MAX 2.0:1
CLA712-5001 7.0 - 12.4 -21 to +10 dBm +14 to +19 dBm +/-
/ 1.5 MAX 2.0:1
CLA618-1201 6.0 - 18.0 -50 to +20 dBm +14 to +19 dBm +/-
/ 1.5 MAX 2.0:1
AMPLIFIERS WITH INTEGRATED GAIN ATTENUATION
M d l No.
Model N Freq
F q (GHz) GGain (dB) MIN Noise
N Figure
F g (dB) Power -out @ P1-dBB GGain AAttenuation RRange
g VSWR
CCA001-2511A
00 2 0
0.025-0.150
02 0 0 2
21 5.0
0 MAX,, 33.5 TYP +12
2 MIN 30 dBd MIN 2.0:1
20
CA05-3110A 0.5-5.5 23 2.5 MAX,, 1.5 TYP +18 MIN 20 dB MIN 2.0:1
CA1518-4110A 15.0-18.0 30 3.0 MAX, 2.0 TYP +18 MIN 20 dB MIN 1.85:1
LOW FREQUENCY AMPLIFIERS
M d l No.
Model N F (GHz) G
Freq Gain (dB) MIN NoiseN Figure
F dB Power -out @ P1-dBB 3rd3 d Order
O d ICP VSWR
CA001-2110
CA001 2110 0
0.01-0.10
01 0 10 18 4.0
4 0 MAX
MAX,, 2.2
2 2 TYP +10
10 MIN +2020 dB
dBm 2.0:1
201
CA001-2211 0.04-0.15 24 3.5 MAX,, 2.2 TYP +13 MIN +23 dBm 2.0:1
CA001-2215 0.04-0.15 23 4.0 MAX,, 2.2 TYP +23 MIN +33 dBm 2.0:1
CA001-3113 0.01-1.0 28 4.0 MAX,, 2.8 TYP +17 MIN +27 dBm 2.0:1
CA002-3114 0.01-2.0 27 4.0 MAX,, 2.8 TYP +20 MIN +30 dBm 2.0:1
CA003-3116 0.01-3.0 18 4.0 MAX,, 2.8 TYP +25 MIN +35 dBm 2.0:1
CA004-3112 0.01-4.0 32 4.0 MAX, 2.8 TYP +15 MIN +25 dBm 2.0:1
CIAO Wireless can easily modify any of its standard models to meet your "exact" requirements at the Catalog Pricing.
Visit our web site at www.ciaowireless.com for our complete product offering.
Ciao Wireless, Inc. 4 0 0 0 V i a P e s c a d o r, C a m a r i l l o , C A 9 3 0 1 2

Tel (805) 389-3224 Fax (805) 389-3629 sales@ciaowireless.com
29
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feedback
Finding The Missing Piece Making Wireless ICs A Commodity and satellite television products. Based
As the wireless marketplace evolved, on InGaP heterojunction-bipolar-tran-
Mr. Browne, however, to include every handheld sistor (HBT) technology, the MMIC
Your article in the March 4 MWRF or pocket-sized device imaginable, AVT-51663 and AVT-53663 amplifiers
UPDATE e-newsletter titled, “Making the price differential between items are ideal for cellular infrastructure and
Wireless ICs A Commodity,” got off to sold for infrastructure use and those other wireless applications from DC to
an interesting start. But it appears to for handsets has become dramatic. 6 GHz. Model AVT-51663 typically pro-
have been cut short on the MWRF web Of course, wireless products are also vides 19-dB gain, +24-dBm third-order
site. Is it available elsewhere? used in industrial, medical, and a vari- intercept point, and +12.5-dBm output
Best regards, ety of smaller markets. Still, it is the power at 1-dB compression with 3.2-dB
Steve Preston cellular communications market that noise figure at 2 GHz, running from 37
represents the largest opportunity. Yet mA and +5 VDC. Model AVT-53663
Hi Steve, that dream of competing for sales into operates with +5 VDC and 48 mA for
Thanks for asking, and for reading. handset markets may have faded for typically 19.5-dB gain, +5-dBm output
I’ve been hearing from folks that it is some companies, given the required third-order intercept point, +15-dBm
not obvious what I am referring to at pricing structure. Few companies can output power at 1-dB compression,
the bottom of this piece. It was actu- match Avago’s achievement of gain and 3.2-dB noise figure at 2 GHz. Both
ally meant to direct people to a story blocks (see below) for those prices, are internally matched to 50 Ohms and
below it, about 30-cent gain blocks from even in large volumes. supplied in RoHS-compliant SOT-363
Avago. Please see the excerpted version surface-mount packages. The models
of my editorial, “Making Wireless ICs InGaP Gain Blocks For Half A Buck? AVT-51663 and AVT-53663 gain blocks
A Commodity,” and the story to which A pair of gain blocks from Avago Tech- are available with prices starting at
it refers, titled “InGaP Gain Blocks For nologies offers cost-effective solutions $0.31 and $0.33, respectively, in 10,000
Half A Buck?” —Jack Browne for boosting signal levels in WiMAX volumes.
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from the editor
Doing More With

Passive Components
I
mprovements in passive components often come
slow and hard, but they still come. Amazingly, after
all these years of living with well-established passive
circuit designs, such as Wilkinson power dividers, one
might think that there was no longer room for improve-
Most manufacturers ments. But most manufacturers of RF/microwave
of passive compo- passive components take great pride in their products,
even those that have been in the catalog for a number
nents take great of years, and most relentlessly pursue ways to improve
pride in their prod- on what has gone before.
Some recent visits to local manufacturers of pas-
ucts, and relent- sive components, notably ARRA (www.arra.com), ET
lessly pursue ways Industries (www.etiworld.com), Micronetics (www.
to improve what has micronetics.com), Synergy Microwave (www.syner-r
gymwave.com), and Werlatone (www.werlatone.com),
gone before. gave a glimpse into the dedication with which high-
frequency design engineers seek new ways to improve
upon existing designs. Many passive component designers have a
fascination with handling high power levels. Not all are adventurous
enough to test their own creations, but would like to know if the
latest design can handle more power than the last iteration.
High power was a common topic at these companies. Some gave
credit to new blends of circuit-board materials with higher thermal
conductivities. Many also mentioned using computer-aided-engineering
(CAE) software, such as tools from SolidWorks (www.solidworks.
com) or COMSOL (www.comsol.com), to predict the thermal flow
through their designs. As many pointed out, such tools are helpful
for performing “what if” analyses of designs with different types of
junctions or substrate materials or even coaxial connectors. But they
are no match for an active imagination, one capable of visualizing
the flow of electronics through a passive circuit design.
In recent years, designers of passive components have shown great
ingenuity in shrinking devices like hybrid couplers and power com-
biners/dividers into the size of resistors. Their efforts have brought
high-frequency signal processing to many portable, hand-held prod-
ucts, including cellular telephones. But the designers of larger passive
component designs are also to be lauded for how they have found ways
to reduce insertion loss, improve return loss, increase isolation, and
shrink the size of these components. These are “old school” passive
components, available for years. But they are used in a wide array
of systems and are vital to those systems. By shaving a tenth of a
decibel in insertion loss and adding another 10 W in power-handling
capabilities, modern designers are taking those small steps that lead
to large improvements in many important systems.
Technical Director
MARCH 2010 ■ Microwaves & RF 17

a Penton Publication
Technical Director
Jack Browne, (212) 204-4377 • jack.browne@penton.com
Editor
Nancy K. Friedrich, (212) 204-4373 • nancy.friedrich@penton.com
Managing Editor
Dawn Hightower, (913) 967-1985 • dawn.hightower@penton.com
Online Managing Editor
Lisa Maliniak • lisamaliniak@optimum.net
European Editor
Paul Whytock • +44 (0)20 8859 1206 • paul.whytock@penton.com
Special Projects Editor
Alan (“Pete”) Conrad
Contributing Editor
Andrew Laundrie
production
Production Coordinator
Kara Harlow, (913) 967-7476
Art dEpArtMEnt
Art Director/Group Design Manager
Anthony Vitolo • tony.vitolo@penton.com
Senior Artist
James M. Miller
Staff Artist
Michael Descul
circulAtion custoMEr sErvicE

Phone: (847) 763-9504 • Toll Free: (866) 505-7173
Fax: (913) 981-5604
michele.bartlett@penton.com
rEprints/pErMission sAlEs
Joel Kirk
Direct: (216) 931-9324; Toll Free: (888) 858-8851; Fax: (216) 472-8519;
E-mail: joel.kirk@penton.com; Online: www.pentonreprints.com
list rEntAls
Walter Karl Inc., Rosalie Garcia • (845) 732-7027
rosalie.garcia@walterkarl.infousa.com
EditoriAl officE
Penton Media Inc., 249 W. 17th St., New York, NY 10011
ElEctronic dEsign group

Senior Vice President
Bob MacArthur
Group Publisher
Bill Baumann
Director of eMedia
Geoff Deakin
Penton Audience Marketing/Circulation Dept.
Audience Marketing Manager/Brenda Roode
VP, Production
Lisa Parks
Chief Executive Officer

Sharon Rowlands
Chief Financial Officer/Executive Vice President
Jean Clifton
18 visit www.mwrf.com march 2010  microwaves & rF
003MRF_Masthead.indd 18 3/9/10 11:40:44 AM

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Wireless Sensor Networks Build On Successes

UNITED KINGDOM— —Wireless sensor networks (WSNs), which are
self-organizing, self-healing networks comprising small “nodes,”
offer much potential for industrial, military, and many other sectors.
Although appreciable sales have already been established, major
progress depends on the success of standards and products achiev-
ing a 20-year life. The new IDTechEx report by Dr. Peter Harrop,
Chairman of IDTechEx, draws lessons from the many successful
installations of WSNs in the last year. Titled “Wireless Sensor Net-
works 2010-2020,” the report examines complex standards in the
WSN space with particular focus on WirelessHART, which is key
to applications in the process industries in the short and medium
term (see figure). In addition, it shows how the alternative standard,
ISA 100.11a, is in need of some improvements.
The report also examines the successes of the various backers
of ZigBee-related solutions and how they see the future. In addi-
tion, it addresses the challenge of excessive power consumption
of these nodes, which have to act as both tags and readers. As The WirelessHart technology promises to allow users to leverage
for batteries, lithium-thionyl-chloride single-use versions have wireless technology while maintaining compatibility with existing
a 20-year life in certain circumstances. For many applications, devices, tools, and systems. (Image courtesy of Hart Communica-
however, rechargeable batteries are more attractive. With that tions Foundation.)
said, where is the rechargeable battery guaranteed for 20 years
in use? The report looks at the most promising battery technologies emerging in the next 10 years as well as battery alterna-
tives. A discussion of the popular energy-harvesting technologies also is included.
The report addresses these issues and provides analysis of WSN projects and development programs including the creation
of improved WSN components. It also profiles many suppliers. For more information, visit: www.IDTechEx.com/wsn.
NASA Breaks Ground For Deep-Space Network Antennas

WASHINGTON—NASA officials broke ground near Canberra, required for new NASA missions approved after 2009.
Australia to begin a new antenna-building campaign to improve In the project's first phase , NASA expects to complete as many as
Deep Space Network communications. Following the recommen- three 34-m antennas by 2018. The decision to begin construction
dations of an independent study, NASA embarked on an ambitious came on the 50th anniversary of US and Australian cooperation
project to replace its aging collection of 230-ft.-wide dishes with a in space-tracking operations.“There is no better way to celebrate
new 112-ft. antenna by 2025. The three 70-m antennas are more our 50 years of collaboration and partnership in exploring the
than 40 years old and located at the NASA Deep Space Network heavens with the government of Australia than our renewed com-
complexes at Goldstone, CA, Madrid, Spain, and Canberra. mitment and investment in new capabilities required for the next
The new antennas, known as“beam-wave-guide”antennas, can five decades,”states Badri Younes, Deputy Associate Administrator
be used more flexibly. They allow the network to operate on several for Space Communications and Navigation at NASA headquarters
different frequency bands with a single antenna. In addition, their (Washington, DC). NASA’s goal is to integrate communications
electronic equipment is more accessible, making maintenance resources into a more capable network. Australia’s Commonwealth
easier and less costly. The new antennas also can receive higher- Scientific and Industrial Research Organization manages the
frequency, wider-bandwidth Ka-band signals. This band has been communication complex near Canberra for NASA.
22 visit www.mwrf.com MARCH 2010 ■ Microwaves & RF

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IF/RF MICROWAVE COMPONENTS 460 rev H
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‘‘
SoC Cuts PA Distortion While Raising Efficiency
LAFOX, IL—Richardson Electronics Ltd. has
The SoC is designed teamed with Scintera, Inc. to bring Scintera’s
to deliver ACLR SC1887 system-on-a-chip (SoC) to market. The
improvements to 26 SC1887 promises to deliver power-amplifier
(PA) linearity improvements without requiring
dB. It also claims to access to in-phase/quadrature (I/Q) baseband President of RF & Microwave Components
increase PA output signals. The SoC supposedly eliminates any need for Richardson Electronics. “Scintera’s technol-
for software development. Because the SC1887 ogy allows RF-amplifier designers to achieve
power while main- automatically calibrates and adjusts to the sig- the newest performance specifications with
’’
taining linearity. nal environment, a training algorithm is not relative ease. This technology improves Class
required. AB and Doherty PA performance for CDMA,
The SoC is designed to deliver adjacent- WCDMA, WiMAX, TD-SCDMA, CDMA2000,
channel-leakage-ratio (ACLR) improvements DVBH, MediaFLO, multicarrier-GSM, and LTE
to 26 dB. It also claims to increase PA power applications.”
output power while maintaining linearity. The Kris Rausch, Vice President of Sales and
SC1887 requires less than 15 additional passive Marketing at Scintera, Inc., adds, “We are proud
components, and eliminates the need for analog- to team up with Richardson Electronics to bring
to-digital or digital-to-analog converters. the system-on-a-chip to market. Its global team
“By making small modifications to an exist- of field-applications engineers will provide the
ing RF amplifier design, we now have the ability proper level of support for OEM design engineers
to enable our customers to quickly design-in seeking to improve performance on existing RF
this important new power-amplifier enhance- amplifier designs or to create something entirely
ment technology,” says Chris Marshall, Vice new for their specific application.”
Kudos
HERNDON, VA—Seven local engineering professionals from the International Organization for Standardization.
Lockheed Martin have been recognized for their achievements MOUNTAIN VIEW, CA—Based on its recent analysis of the satellite
in shaping the future of science, technology, and engineering. market, Frost & Sullivan recognized Hughes Network Systems
The employees were named Modern Day Technology Leaders LLC with the 2009 North American Award for Company of
and were recognized at the Black Engineer of the Year Awards the Year for its growth strategies, high-quality customer service,
conference held in Baltimore, MD. The winners from the Wash- and product/service reliability. “In North America, Hughes
ington, DC, area are Channing Corley, Senior Network Engi- has managed to grow revenues significantly year-over-year
neer, Rockville, MD; Gil Dussek, Computer Systems Architect, even during the economic downturn,” says Frost & Sullivan
Herndon, VA; Tia Furr, Senior Systems Engineer, Greenbelt, Research Analyst Gina Villanueva.
MD; Ashish Kejriwal, Information Systems Analysis Manager, CAMBRIDGE, UK—Aeroflex has delivered a TM500 Time-
Gwynn Oak, MD; Rakesh Patel, Staff Systems Integration Division-Duplex Long Term Evolution (TDD-LTE) Test Mobile
Analyst, Chantilly, VA; Gregory Roberts, Information Shar- test system to the China Academy of Telecommunications
ing Campaign Chief, Herndon, VA; and Khalilah Wilkinson, Research (CATR). The TM500 will support CATR’s ongoing
Systems Engineer, Greenbelt, MD. TDD-LTE technology trials conducted by Chinese and inter-
SOUTH PLAINFIELD, NJ—Cookson Electronics’ QC/Analytical national network-equipment vendors.
laboratory located in Altoona, PA, was granted its ISO 17025 SANTA CLARA, CA—QP Semiconductor has been given preferred
Management System accreditation by the American Association supplier status by Lockheed Martin Corp. The award is for
for Laboratory Accreditation (A2LA). The Altoona site also maintaining 100-percent quality performance and on-time
observed a 13-year anniversary of its ISO 9001 certification. delivery during the past two years in support of multiple
ENDICOTT, NY—Endicott Interconnect Technologies, Inc. (EI) Lockheed Martin programs.
has announced that its Endicott, NY facility has achieved ISO LONDON, ENGLAND—Lisburn-based Kelman Ltd., GE’s moni-
13485:2003 certification. ISO 13485:2003 is a quality manage- toring and diagnostics specialists, has received the Company
ment standard for medical device manufacturing developed by of the Year Award in the medium-sized business category.
24 MARCH 2010 ■ Microwaves & RF

RFMD . ®
Mini-RF Passive Components Portfolio

A new line of mini-RF passive couplers, splitters, and CATV original equipment manufacturers (OEMs) require
transformers is now available from RFMD! Designed for RF passives in both head end, forward path, and return
applications that require very small, low-cost, and highly path applications. RFMD now offers a cost-effective
reliable surface mount components, these high-performance solution for these CATV OEMs and other broadband
devices serve a broad range of end markets, including manufacturers by providing this new line of low-cost
broadband and wireless communications systems. mini-passive components that provide better performance
with a smaller footprint. Contact your local RFMD sales
representative for pricing.
SPLITTERS - 0º OFFSET
Return Isolation Isolation Insertion Insertion Amp Phase
Part Freq Range Lo Min Typ Min Loss Typ Loss Max Unbalance Max Unbalance Max
Number (MHz) (dB) (dB) (dB) (dB) (dB) (dB) (Deg) Package
RFSP5522* 5 to 1200 14 22 18 1.0 1.6 0.6 5.0 S18
RFSP5722 5 to 1200 12 28 22 0.8 1.5 0.5 5.0 S18
* 50 ohms
LERS
Nominal Coupling Mainline Mainline Directivity Directivity Return Loss
Part Freq Range Coupling Flatness Loss Typ Loss Max Typ Min Min
Number (MHz) (dB) (dB) (dB) (dB) (dB) (dB) (dB) Package
RFCP5742 5 to 1200 10 ± 0.5 ± 0.5 1.5 2.0 14 10 11 S18
RFCP5743 5 to 1200 10 ± 0.5 ± 0.5 1.5 2.0 14 8 14 S20
RFCP5762 5 to 1200 16 ± 0.5 ± 0.5 0.6 1.2 20 10 14 S18
RFCP5763 5 to 1200 16 ± 0.5 ± 0.5 0.8 1.2 20 8 14 S20
TRANSFORMERS
Insertion Loss Insertion Loss Insertion Loss
Part Freq Range Impedance 3 dB Bandwidth 2 dB Bandwidth 1 dB Bandwidth
Number (MHz) Ratio (MHz) (MHz) (MHz) Package
RFXF2713 5 to 200 1:1 — — 5 to 200 S20
RFXF5702 5 to 1200 1:1 — 5 to 1200 5 to 750 S18
RFXF5703 5 to 1200 1:1 — 5 to 1200 10 to 870 S20
RFXF5704 5 to 1200 1:1 — 5 to 1200 5 to 800 S21
RFXF5712 5 to 1200 1:1 — 5 to 1200 5 to 1000 S18
RFXF5753 5 to 1200 1:4 5 to 1200 5 to 870 — S20
RFXF5792 5 to 1200 1:1 — 5 to 1200 5 to 1000 S18
RFXF5793 5 to 1200 1:1 — — 5 to 1200 S20
RFXF5794 5 to 1200 1:1 — — 5 to 1200 S21
RFXF6553* 10 to 1900 1:4 10 to 19000 10 to 1000 10 to 500 S20
RFXF8553* 500 to 2500 1:4 500 to 2500 500 to 1500 500 to 1000 S20
RFXF9503* 3 to 3000 1:1 3 to 2700 3 to 2400 3 to 1800 S20
RFXF9504* 5 to 3000 1:1 5 to 3000 5 to 2700 5 to 1200 S21
* 50 ohms
FEATURES
• Extremely small industry-standard footprint
• S21 package, the industry’s smallest footprint
wideband transformer
• Superior performance
S21
1 Package size:
si S20
20 Package size:
size S18 Package size: • Low cost and ROHS compliant
0.100” x 0.080” 0.150” x 0.150” 0.250” x 0.300”
• 50 ohms and 75 ohms impedance
Order RFMD products online at www.rfmd.com/rfmd/ Express

p
For sales or technical support, contact your authorized local sales representative (see www.rfmd.com/globalsales).
/g
Register to receive RFMD’s latest product releases with our new Email Component Alerts at www.rfmd.com/emailalert
/ .
7628 Thorndike Rd., Greensboro, NC 27409-9421 USA • Phone 336.664.1233 • Fax 336.931.7454
RFMD® is a trademark of RFMD, LLC. All other trade names, trademarks and registered trademarks are the property of their respective owners. ©2010 RFMD.
Microwaves
Paul Whytock, Eu
Europe
uropean Correspondent
P
POWER
T
EFFICIENCY
TAKES CENTER STAGE AT
MOBILE WORLD CONGRESS
M
(voice only to LTE) and during non-ideal

load conditions, which also are known as
“antenna mismatch.” Each PowerSmart
platform uses a standardized digital inter-
face (SDI) and is optimized to mate with
leading multi-band HSPA+/EDGE/GPRS
RF transceivers.
SoC Makes Breakthrough

or Global Foundries—in conjunction
F with ARM—Spain’s mobile-communi-
cations techfest offered an opportunity to
Every year, the city of Barcelona, Spain is home to Mobile World Congress. unveil a system-on-a-chip (SoC) technol-
ogy for powering next-generation wireless
In addition to drawing enormous crowds, the Mobile World products and applications. The chip manufacturing platform
Congress (MWC) in Barcelona, Spain hosted an array of 1300 involves the merging of two Global Foundries process vari-
companies. Those companies were hoping to attract the atten- ants: the 28-nm super-low-power (SLP) process for mobile
tion of original-equipment-manufacturing (OEM) designers, and consumer applications and 28-nm high-performance
mobile-phone system designers, and network operators. They (HP) process. Compared to 40/45-nm technologies, the 28-nm
occupied exhibition booths that came in all sizes—from large process with Gate-First HKMG technology is projected to
enough to accommodate the population of a small town to enable a 40 percent increase in computing performance, a 30
those that could just about squeeze in a couple of items of percent decrease in power consumption, and a 100 percent
furniture. But then, technology breakthroughs come in all increase in standby battery life.
shapes and sizes. The ARM and Global Foundries SoC platform is based
Two companies in particular generated excitement at the on the ARM Cortex-A9 processor, optimized ARM physi-
show: RF Micro Devices and Global Foundries. Both were cal intellectual property (IP), and Global Foundries’ 28-nm
showing technology that had a direct relevance to efficient Gate-First High-K Metal Gate (HKMG) process. Together,
power usage—a theme that was evident throughout the ARM and Global Foundries expect to enable manufacturers
MWC event. RF Micro Devices used MWC to debut its of smartphones, smartbooks, tablets, and more to address
PowerSmart power platforms, which feature a new RF Con- increasing design and manufacturing complexities while
figurable Power Core. According to the company, that core reducing time to volume production at mature yields.
leverages functional efficiency while processing all known The company claims that its 28-nm process with Gate-
cellular modulation schemes including GSM/GPRS, EDGE, First HKMG technology provides significant performance
EDGE Evolution, CDMA, third-generation (3G; TD-SCDMA gains over the previous generation 40/45-nm technologies.
or WCDMA/HSPA+), and fourth-generation (4G; LTE or Current estimates say that 28 nm with HKMG will provide
WiMAX) communications. approximately 40 percent higher performance within the
With PowerSmart, RFMD is promising to enable a new same thermal envelope.
generation of global smart phones and mobile Internet devices, Global Foundries expects to start production on these
which will require three or more 3G or 4G bands. The RF next-generation technologies in the second half of this year
Configurable Power Core at the heart of each platform incor- at its fab in Dresden, Germany. Currently, Global Foundries
porates all power-amplification and RF power-management has five 200-mm fabs and one 300-mm fab in Singapore as
functionality. It also includes switching and signal-conditioning well as one leading-edge 300-mm-fab complex in Dresden,
functionality in a compact reference design. Germany. The firm has an aggressive production capacity plan
From a power perspective, RFMD’s platforms could help that includes the expansion of Fab 1 in Dresden and Fab 7 in
to extend battery life and reduce average thermal dissipation. Singapore as well as construction of a new 300-mm facility
Essentially, they maximize power efficiency across data rates in Saratoga County, NY.

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We News And Products
Please join us in welcoming Lisa Maliniak, Online
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free, and available from the Microwaves & RF web site Lisa, who received a BSEE from Rutgers Univer-
at www.mwrf.com. sity, has been working as an editor for 20 years.
Aside from stints as both a Technology Editor and
ut
Check eow Video e-Media Editor for Electronic Design, she has writ-
ten for Wireless Systems Design and EEPN. In her
new position, Lisa will be providing content for the
Lisa Maliniak
our n Coverage
For some time, Microwaves & RF Editor
Microwaves & RF web site. She will regularly write
and post both news and product stories. In addition
to Lisa, Microwaves & RF is happy to be featuring
online content from our European Correspondent,
Nancy Friedrich and European Paul Whytock. Paul will regularly update our audi-
Correspondent Paul Whytock ence with both hot and unique news from the Euro-
have been bringing you video pean RF market. Visit www.mwrf.com today to see
Paul Whytock
coverage from the floors of what’s new online.
important tradeshows like the
International Microwave Sympo- Share Your Thoughts With Quick Polls
sium (IMS) and European Micro- Quick polls allow you to regularly share your opinion on a
wave Week. To see Nancy’s most wide range of topics.
recent interviews at IMS in Boston,
LATEST POLL RESULTS:
for example, go to www.mwrf.com
and click on IMS 2009 on the left Has the technology of microwave packaging kept
toolbar. These videos strive to provide pace with that of microwave ICs?
both attendees and non-attendees with a
personal view of some of the key product 40% Yes
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industry events. As editors, we have the
benefit of being able to meet and exchange
ideas with some of the greatest minds in the NEW POLL:
microwave industry. We’re hoping that our Can thermal modeling software programs adequately
video interviews offer insight into the latest product devel- predict the behavior of microwave passive compo-
opments while introducing you to the microwave engineers
nents under high-power (>100W) operation?
who created them. Stay tuned for more video coverage on
www.mwrf.com! To cast your vote, go to www.mwrf.com now!
003MRF_webToC.indd 28 3/9/10 9:30:36 AM

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VVAs
Constant Impedance
10 MHz to 7 GHz
IP 3
H I G H
RoHs compliant
$
3
95
from ea. qty. 25
Voltage Variable Attenuators ( V VAs) Mini-Circuits V VAs are enclosed in shielded

deliver as high as 40 dB attenuation control over the surface-mount cases as small as 0.3” x 0.3” x
10 MHz through 7.0 GHz range. Offered in both 50 0.1”. Coaxial models are available with unibody
and 75 Ω models these surface-mount and coaxial case with SMA connectors. Applications include
low-cost V VAs require no external components automatic-level-control (ALC) circuits, gain and
and maintain a good impedance match over the power level control, and leveling in feedforward
entire frequency and attenuation range, typically amplifiers. Visit the Mini-Circuits website at www.
20 dB return loss at input and output ports. These minicircuits.com for comprehensive performance
high performance units offer insertion loss as low as data, circuit layouts, environmental specifications
1.5 dB, typical IP3 performance as high as and real-time price and availability.
+56 dBm, and minimal phase variation low as 7°. Mini-Circuits...Your partners for success since 1969

IF/RF MICROWAVE COMPONENTS 449 rev D
003MRF31.indd 1 3/9/2010 10:05:00 AM

VERY LOW
W DISTORTION
$ 95 ea.
+ 36
36dBm
dBm IP33 2 too 31000 MHz from qty.
y 1000
Mini-Circuits shielded LAVI frequency mixers deliver the breakthrough c combination of very high
IP3 and IP2, ultra-wideband operation, and outstanding electrical performance. By combining our
advanced ceramic, core & wire, and semi-conductor technologies, we’ve created these evolutionary
patented broadband mixers that are specially designed to help improve overall dynamic range.
With a wide selection of models, you’ll find a Lavi mixer optimized for your down converter and
up converter requirements. Visit the Mini-Circuits website at www.minicircuits.com for comprehensive
performance data, circuit layouts, and environmental specifications. Price & availability for on-line
ordering is provided for your convenience.
Check these Lavi Mixer outstanding features!

U Very wide band, 2 to 3100 MHz U Super high isolation, up to 52 dB
U Ultra high IP2 (+60 dBm) and IP3 (+36 dBm) U High 1dB compression, up to +23 dBm
U -73 dBc harmonic rejection 2LO-2RF, 2RF-LO U Extremely low conversion loss, from 6.3 dB
RoHS compliant U.S. Patent Number 6,807,407

IF/RF MICROWAVE COMPONENTS 451 Rev E
D I G I TA L AT T E N U ATO R S
NewsReport
Digital Attenuators Master

Amplitude In MW Systems
As applications ranging from communications to defense place
new demands on tight amplitude control, microwave engineers
increasingly rely on digital attenuators for precision and linearity.
neers who are not familiar with them. tain a 6-dB attenuation control setting
NANCY FRIEDRICH For example, if the engineer exceeds within 0.6 dB of the nominal.
Editor
the specified compression point for a The company spotlights its DAT
DSA—typically given at 0-dBm input— family of DSAs in application note
A
ttenuators are part of any harmonics will be generated that could AN-70-004, titled “Digital Step Atten-
design’s amplitude con- affect system operation. In addition, uators Offer Precision and Linearity.”2
trol. Digital attenuators errors will occur in measured output The note explains that the LSB value of
help to simplify that con- levels because some fundamental sig- a DSA is dictated by both temperature-
trol in microwave and nal power has been transferred to the dependent attenuation variations and
RF systems. In a variety harmonic products. accuracy (often limited by the manu-
of markets—including According to the firm, most step facturing process). If the temperature
commercial communications, mili- attenuators suffer relatively wide variation is low and accuracy is high,
tary, and test areas—amplitude is used attenuation variation over the speci- a minimum attenuation step can be
for modulation, detection, linearity extremely small.
improvement, and a number of other For example, Mini-
functions in a system. Suppliers of Circuits’ Super RF
digital step attenuators (DSAs) help CMOS devices offer
to provide the means of controlling attenuation steps as
power levels swiftly and with precision, small as 0.5 dB. The
such as in cellular base stations. The most-significant-bit
latest DSAs exhibit enhanced accuracy (MSB) attenuation
and least significant bits (LSBs) in the value is dictated by
tenths of decibels for precise control ators can be used to create automatic-test- temperature- and
of amplitude and minimal insertion equipment systems. frequency-depen-
loss. dent attenuation
In a concise application note called fied frequency band. For example, a variations and the amount of isola-
simply “Digital Step Attenuators,” 3-dB step could be off by as much as 1 tion possible through the attenuator’s
Mini-Circuits (www.minicircuits. dB, which translates into attenuation switching devices. It also is decided by
com) defines a digital or electronic step of 2 to 4 dB. With its TTL-controlled the semiconductor process variation.
attenuator as a component that var- step attenuators, Mini-Circuits promises Mini-Circuits’ Super RF CMOS attenu-
ies attenuation by digital control sig- that this difference will be 0.3 dB or less. ators provide an MSB to 16 dB.
nals.1 Just as digital signals have finite In cases of DSAs with poor return-loss The 75-Ω DAT-15575-PN(+), for
states, a digitally controlled attenuator performance, a change in attenuation example, delivers 15.5 dB total attenu-
has a corresponding number of finite state from 3 dB to a new setting at 6 dB ation in 0.5-dB steps. The 5-b device
attenuation states. The note includes may result in attenuation being off by offers a parallel control interface and
the most-asked questions about DSAs as much as 2 dB. Mini-Circuits’ DSAs dual supply voltage. It boasts typical
and provides useful advice for engi- exhibit 24 dB return loss and can main- accuracy of 0.1 dB. The attenuator

NewsReport
exhibits return loss of 20 dB with over the same frequency range. From
an input third-order intercept point 2000 to 3000 MHz, attenuation error
of +52 dBm. From DC to 1.2 GHz, is typically +0.2 dB with a maximum
typical insertion loss is 1.2 dB with a of -0.10/+0.50 dB. The DSA varies 11
maximum of 1.8 dB. From 1.2 to 2.0 deg. in relative phase for all attenuation
GHz, typical insertion loss is 1.6 dB states. It exhibits insertion loss that is
with a maximum of 2.1 dB. At a 2-dB typically 0.6 dB with a maximum of
attenuation setting, the attenuator is 0.7 dB. The PE43204 DSA provides
accurate within 0.7 dB from DC to typical return loss of 15 dB across its
1.2 GHz and 0.15 dB from 1.2 to 2.0 operating frequency range.
GHz. It targets applications includ- This DSA is well suited for use with
ing base-station infrastructure, CATV 2 This 8-b,
2. 8 b 0.25-dB
0 25 dB LSB,
LSB 0-to-64-dB
0 to 64 dB digital transmitters. Yet the PE43204’s fast
and direct broadcast satellite (DBS), attenuator exhibits insertion loss to 6 dB with switching also makes it a fit for diversity
multichannel multipoint distribution a maximum VSWR of 2.0:1 receive applications, in which it can be
service (MMDS) and wireless local- used to protect the receive path and pre-
area networks (WLANs), and power- attenuation in 6-, 12-, or 18-dB steps vents overdriving the receive-channel
amplifier-distortion canceling loops. from 50 to 3000 MHz. This compo- analog-to-digital converter (ADC). By
To serve fourth-generation (4G) nent is based on the firm’s UltraCMOS leveraging the firm’s HaRP technology,
Long Term Evolution (LTE) commu- silicon-on-insulator (SOI) technology. the PE43204 suffers no gate lag or
nications needs, Peregrine Semicon- Typically, the PE43204 DSA features an phase drift. This translates into very fast
ductor (www.psemi.com) developed attenuation error of +0.1 dB from 50 settling time and an input third-order
the 50-Ω PE43204 2-b UltraCMOS MHz to roughly 2000 MHz. Maximum intercept point above +61 dBm at 3
DSA. It provides as much as 18-dB attenuation error is -0.25/+0.40 dB GHz. The DSA typically switches in
26 ns. By comparison, gallium-arsenide
(GaAs)–based alternatives offer switch-
ing speeds to 130 ns.
RF & Microwave The TEA4000-7 DSA from Telemakus
LLC (www.telemakus.com) underscores
Design Software the trend toward making a personal
Appl
Ap plied Comp
mputational Sciences computer into a test and measurement
system (see “USB Devices Simplify RF/
www.appliedmicrowave.com Microwave Testing,” February, p. 94).
Using switches in addition to multiple
• Exact Circuit Synthesis attenuators, engineers can utilize this
attenuator to create complex automatic-
• Accuratte Simullattion test-equipment (ATE) systems (Fig. 1).
• Powerful Optimization
timization The 7-b digital attenuator covers 31.75
dB in 0.25-dB steps. It exhibits better
• Statistical Yield Analysis than 20 dB return loss from 1 MHz to
• Free Tecchnical support 4 GHz. The TEA4000-7, which is fully
terminated at all ports, includes SMA
m p lete tes RF connectors with male at port 1 and
Co gn sui k! female at port 2 to allow for easy inter-
i
des nder $1 connection. The DC/control connector
is USB type A, which permits direct
for u connection to a PC or via a Universal
Serial Bus (USB) extender cable. The
Check Web for Latest Specials device also has 0.5 GB of Flash memory
containing installation files, a datasheet,
TM
LINC2 From ACS and test results. The Windows-based
user interface allows simple control of
Powerful • • • Accurate • • • Affordable the attenuator including a ramp func-
To order, contact: www.appliedmicrowave.com tion. The attenuator can be used with
common ATE software as well.

3 3 0 0 -3 6
00 MHz
1710 - 2 4
824-960 0 0 MHz
MHz
ULTRA L
AMPLIO WN
FIERSOISE
D p
w as
as Lo
5 6000 MHz 0.55 dB NF $995
450- ffrom
TAMP Typical Specifications
ea. qty. 5-49
The TAMP series of LNAs not only eliminates the need for
Frequency, NF Gain Max Output Price $
designers to optimize low noise transistor bias and matching MODEL GHz dB dB dBm (5-49)
circuitry, but they’re also optimized to give superior performance TAMP-960LN+ .82-.96 0.55 18.0 16.5 9.95
of ultra low noise and high dynamic range in a self contained, TAMP-242LN+ 1.7-2.4 0.65 13.0 17.0 9.95
drop-in, compact metal-shielded case. The case PCB area is TAMP-242GLN+ 1.7-2.4 0.85 30.0 20.0 13.95
smaller than most LNA transistor designs with external circuitry. TAMP-272LN+ 2.3-2.7 0.90 14.0 18.0 9.95
TAMP-362LN+ 3.3-3.6 0.90 12.0 11.0 10.95
The TAMPs do not require any external elements, are unconditionally
TAMP-362GLN+ 3.3-3.6 0.90 20.0 16.0 14.95
stable, and are matched to 50Ω input/output. They’re the ideal mix
TAMP-Custom Customer to specify
of flexibility, efficiency, and price and come in a single, integrated
RoHS compliant
component ready to drop-in to your assembly board.
Visit us online at www.minicircuits.com to view actual performance data for our complete line of new, all-in-one LNAs –
the latest way Mini-Circuits continues to deliver on it’s commitment to bring you more engineering value for your money.
Mini-Circuits. Your partners for success since 1969.

NewsReport
Like all com- Dubbed model DAT-23-480/2S,

ponents, attenu- models in this product family the 8-b, 0.25-dB LSB, 0-to-64-dB
ator frequency offer attenuation ranges of digital attenuator exhibits inser-
must match the 15 and 70 dB. tion loss to 6 dB with a maximum
frequency of the VSWR of 2.0:1. It typically switches
application that it intends to serve. Due to the in 500 ns. The attenuator offers ±1.2 dB
growth in communications and other applica- flatness at 64 dB. The attenuator’s control logic
tions that fall into broadband fre-quencies, it is TTL. Its sibling, model DAT-25-480/2S, also is an 8 b,
should come as no surprise that many attenuator 0-to-64-dB digital attenuator with an LSB of 0.25 dB. Yet
developments target this arena. To serve broadband applications it covers 6 to 18 GHz while exhibiting insertion loss to 6.5
like electronic-warfare (EW) systems and instrumentation, for dB with maximum VSWR of 2.0:1. Control logic is TTL
instance, Mimix Asia (www.mimixasia.com) has introduced and switching time is 500 ns typical. Flatness is ±3.0 dB at
a gallium-arsenide (GaAs) monolithic-microwave-integrated- 64 dB.
circuit (MMIC)-packaged digital attenuator. Over DC to 18 Broadband digital attenuators also are among the numer-
GHz, the XA1000-QH delivers an attenuation range of 28 ous attenuators available from Hittite Microwave (www.
dB and handles +24 dBm output power at 1-dB compres- hittite.com). The HMC306MS10(E), for example, is a 5-b
sion. Housed in a 4-x-4-mm QFN package, the attenuator positive-control, GaAs IC digital attenuator that comes in a
is digitally controlled with 5-b operation and an LSB of 0.9 10-lead MSOP surface-mount plastic package. From 0.7 to
dB. The XA1000-QH is well suited for instrumentation, mi- 3.8 GHz, it typically exhibits insertion loss below 1.5 to 2.3
crowave point-to-point radio, satellite communications, and dB. The attenuator’s bit values are 0.5 (LSB), 1, 2, 4, and 8
military radar. dB for a total attenuation of 15.5 dB. The HMC306MS10(E)
A broadband digital attenuator from Pulsar Microwave boasts typical attenuation accuracy of ±0.2 dB with an input
(www.pulsarmicrowave.com) spans 6 to 16 GHz (Fig. 2). third-order intercept point to +52 dBm. Each attenuation
state can be selected via 5-b control voltage inputs, which
are toggled between 0 and +3 to +5 V. Among this attenua-
tor’s target applications are UMTS/3G infrastructure; ISM,
MMDS, WLAN, and WiMAX; microwave radio and VSAT,
and test equipment and sensors.
Model DVAT-0518-60-8-SK-196 is one programmable-
attenuator option from American Microwave Corp. (www.
americanmicrowavecorp.com). This variable attenuator/
modulator spans 0.5 to 18.0 GHz with as much as 50 dB
attenuation. It exhibits insertion loss to 4.5 dB. At 40 dB,
attenuation flatness is ±3.0 dB. The attenuator provides
accuracy of ±1.3 dB from above 30 through 50 dB. It pro-
vides 8-b binary TTL control.
The PA series binary-programmable step attenuators from
RLC Electronics (www.rlcelectronics.com) cover DC to 20
GHz (Fig. 3). Two basic models offer attenuation ranges of
15 and 70 dB. Attenuation is determined by the number of
bits per model with bits controlling the amounts of attenu-
ation in ascending order, such as 1, 2, 4, and 8 dB for a 4-b,
15-dB unit. The attenuators are equipped with failsafe or
latching operation and either 12- or 28-V coils. TTL drivers
are available as an option. The attenuators span a choice of
frequency ranges. From 5.0 to 12.4 GHz, for example, the
PA-124 offers a range of 0 to 15 dB in 1-dB steps. It exhibits
insertion loss to 1.6 dB with a maximum VSWR of 1.7:1.
The 50-Ω attenuator offers maximum accuracy of ±0.5 dB
per cell. Attenuation cells are 1, 2, 4, and 8 dB.
Covering 10 to 2000 MHz, the 5-b model TAD2104 from
Spectrum Microwave (www.spectrummicrowave.com) offers a
31-dB attenuation range in 1-, 2-, 4-, 8-, and 16-dB steps. The
GaAs device typically switches in 15 ns. Usually, it exhibits

NewsReport
insertion loss below 6.5 dB with VSWR focus on the frequency range and then in a range of package sizes and types.
of 1.5:1. It exhibits maximum insertion on key aspects like insertion loss and Such elements should be considered
loss of 8.5 dB with VSWR of 1.75:1. The switching speed, it also is crucial to early in the design process.
attenuator generally offers accuracy of remember that attenuators are fabri- REFERENCES
±0.5 dB (±2 percent). cated using many different technologies. 1. “Digital Step Attenuators,” Mini-Circuits application
note, www.minicircuits.com/pages/pdfs/dsa5-2.pdf.
Although the market for broadband The process technology will impact per- 2. “Digital Step Attenuators Offer Precision and Lin-
earity,” Mini-Circuits application note AN-70-004, www.
digital attenuators is generating a great formance. In addition, attenuators come minicircuits.com/pages/pdfs/an70004.pdf.
number of products, attenuator devel-
opment continues to be strong in the
lower-frequency ranges. At the center of
the range of digital attenuators available
from Skyworks, Inc. (www.skyworksinc.
com) is the AA106-86 or AA106-86LF.
It targets applications like cellular radio,
wireless data, and wireless-local-loop
gain-level-control circuits. This 5-b GaAs
integrated-circuit (IC) FET component
attenuates in 0.5-dB steps to 15.5 dB.
It offers 0.5-dB LSB positive control
from 0.5 to 2.0 GHz. From 0.5 to 1
GHz, the digital attenuator typically
exhibits insertion loss to 2.0 dB with
a maximum of 2.4 dB and accuracy of
±0.2 + 3 percent of dB attenuation setting
in dB. Over a span of 1.0 to 2.0 GHz, it
usually exhibits insertion loss of 3.0 dB 8)&/:06µ3&
41&$*':*/("'*-5&3©
with a limit of 3.4 dB and accuracy of
±0.3 + 5 percent of dB attenuation set-
ting in dB. The 50-Ω attenuator typically
offers a VSWR of 1.5:1 from 0.5 to 2.0
GHz with a maximum of 2.0:1.
In addition to GaAs FETs, the exten-
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sive line of digital attenuators from 'JMUFSTDBOQMBZBDSVDJBMSPMFJOXIFUIFSBTZTUFNTVDDFFETPS
DAICO Industries (www.daico.com) GBJMTJOUIFGJFME5IBUµTXIZEFTJHOFSTUVSOUP"OBUFDI&MFDUSPOJDT
leverages PIN and Schottky diode GPSTPMVUJPOTUPUIFJSUPVHIFTUGJMUFSJOHDIBMMFOHFT
technologies. The 1- through 8-b
attenuators offer 0.1 dB LSB with as
8FµMMXPSLXJUIZPVUPEFWFMPQBDVTUPN3'PSNJDSPXBWFGJMUFS
much as 127-dB attenuation. The four-
UIBUNFFUTPSFYDFFETZPVSFYQFDUBUJPOT°BOEEFMJWFSJUGBTU
section DAT0984-1 GaAs attenuator,
for example, covers 10 to 1000 MHz
with a 15-dB range and 1-dB LSB. It 4PXIFUIFSZPVSEFTJHOHPFTJOUPBDPNNFSDJBMPSNJMJUBSZTZTUFN
typically exhibits insertion loss of 1.9 ZPVSGJSTUDBMMTIPVMECFUP"OBUFDI&MFDUSPOJDT°UIFMFBEFSJO
dB with a maximum of 2.5 dB and a DVTUPNGJMUFSTGSPN%$UP()[GPSZFBST
VSWR of 1.5:1. It switches in 0.03 μs/
maximum under TTL control.
This sampling of attenuators repre-
sents only a small number of the suppli- $0/5"$56450%":"/"5&$)&-&$530/*$4$0.
ers who provide digital attenuators. An TBMFT!BOBUFDIFMFDUSPOJDTDPN
array of attenuator choices are available
from firms like JFW, Alan Industries, 063 8&#4503&".$3'$0.
Micronetics, Trilithic, Aerowave, Qua-
sar, Herley, GT Microwave, Merrimac,
Waveline, Richardson, and RF-Lambda,
among others. Although most engineers

PA S S I V E P O W E R L I M I T S
RF Primer
Gauge Power Limits

On Passive Components
By avoiding high insertion loss and impedance junctions in passive
components, high power levels can be transferred without
unnecessary buildup of heat or creation of damaging hotspots.
JACK BROWNE component are points where heat can power. For most coaxial microwave
Technical Director
build up, such as in a coaxial connec- components within the frequency range
tor. For this reason, connector manu- of the connector, the SMA connector
P
assive components are often facturers evaluate their products in will establish the power-handling limit
required to handle large test fixtures with large signal levels, to of the component. Higher power lev-
amounts of RF/microwave determine the maximum safe CW and els are possible with ruggedized SMA
power. When subjected to peak operating power levels. Studies by connectors or larger connectors such
high continuous-wave numerous connector companies, such as as Type N connectors.
(CW) or peak power lev- Amphenol RF (www.amphenolrf.com), For example, Southwest Microwave
els, the signal path or paths through a have clarified differences between aver- (www.southwestmicrowave.com) man-
passive component can also be thought age power and peak power to improve ufactures a “Super SMA” connector
of as thermal paths, and any impedi- customers’ understanding of their con- usable through 27 GHz at power levels
ment to the conduction of heat can nectors’ power ratings. of 250 W CW and more, depending
limit the power-handling capabilities The firm also points out that the upon operating temperature. The firm
of the component. Understanding how average power rating for a connec- offers an application note, “Power Rat-
well different passive components were tor or cable/connector combination ing for Coaxial Connectors,” which
designed for thermal flow can provide is inversely proportional to frequency addresses the power capabilities of
some insight into their power ratings. (since resistive losses increase with mated pairs of coaxial connectors, and
Two of the key passive-component increasing frequency), and connec- how large current flow through a small
specifications that will determine how tors generally have higher power rat- contact area between the two connec-
well the component will handle high ings than the cables to which they are tors can lead to heating.
power levels are insertion loss and attached. A connector’s peak power SMA female connectors are used in
VSWR (or return loss). Signal energy capability is related to its peak voltage the model 3164-90 miniature hybrid
can be lost as a result of dissipative (V) rating, according to V2/Z, where Z coupler from ARRA (www.arra.com).
losses in the materials of the compo- is the characteristic impedance (usually By maintaining low insertion loss of
nent, including metal conductors and 50 Ω) of the connector. Peak power is 0.25 dB and low VSWR of 1.25:1
dielectric substrates. The lost energy is usually determined for a very short duty throughout its 1-to-2-GHz frequency
usually converted into heat, which must cycle, and is inversely proportional to range, it can handle CW power to 100
be dissipated. VSWR is a measure of VSWR, but not dependent on frequency. W CW. It is rated for 5 kW peak power,
signal reflections occurring at changes Both peak and average power-handling when tested with 5-microsecond pulses
of impedance along the signal path, capabilities decrease with altitude. at a duty cycle of 0.05 percent.
such as from a coaxial connector pin to To reduce insertion loss, some con- It is also possible to manage 100-W
a printed circuit board (PCB). Any such nectors incorporate air gaps, although CW power handling in a hybrid coupler
impedance junctions are also points at these can appear as discontinuities in without connectors, as Werlatone has
which heat can build up. the thermal path. Standard SMA con- demonstrated with its model QH7785
Even within the parts of a passive nectors are rated for about 100 W CW component. The hybrid coupler operates
38 MARCH 2010 Microwaves & RF

STOCK
IN
2995
MODELSS ( Add Prefix BW- )
$ 2 W SMA 5 W SMA 5 W Type-N

$29.95 $44.95 $54.95
Attenuation (dB)
Nominal Accuracy *
from ea. (1-49) S1W2 S1W5 N1W5 1 ±0.40
S2W2 S2W5 N2W5 2 ±0.40
Rugged Stainless Steel Construction, High Repeatability, Miniature Size, Low Cost, S3W2 S3W5 N3W5 3 ±0.40
and Off-The-Shelf Availability are some of the features that make Mini-Circuits “BW”
family of precision fixed attenuators stand above the crowd! This extremely broad S4W2 S4W5 N4W5 4 ±0.40
S5W2 S5W5 N5W5 5 ±0.40
band DC to 18 GHz series is available in 5 watt Type-N and 2 & 5 watt SMA coaxial
designs, each containing 15 models with nominal attenuation values from 1 to 40 dB. S6W2 S6W5 N6W5 6 ±0.40
Built tough to handle 125 watts maximum peak power, these high performance S7W2 S7W5 N7W5 7 -0.4, +0 .9
attenuators exhibit excellent temperature stability, 1.15:1 VSWR typical, and cover a S8W2 S8W5 N8W5 8 ±0.60
wealth of applications. So contact Mini-Circuits today, and capture this next generation of S9W2 S9W5 N9W5 9 -0.4, +0.8
performance and value! Mini-Circuits...Your partners for success since 1969 S10W2 S10W5 N10W5 10 ±0.60
Now Available! Adapters ( Prices: qty. 1-49 ) S12W2 S12W5 N12W5 12 ±0.60
S15W2 S15W5 N15W5 15 ±0.60
To order Attenuators as RoHS, add +

to base model No. Example: BW-S1W2+
Type N to SMA
Type-N SMA to SMA QUICK CONNECT SMA SMA to BNC Type-N to Type-N Adapters available as RoHS, see web site.
DC-18 GHz $2295 ea. DC-18 GHz from $495 ea. DC-2 GHz $395 ea. DC-6 GHzz $995 ea.
o S
COMPLIANT

IF/RF MICROWAVE COMPONENTS 331 rev N
PA S S I V E P O W E R L I M I T S
RF Primer
from 200 to 1000 MHz and achieves How can designers maximize the conductor metal influence the power-
the high power-handling capability with power-handling capabilities of their handling capabilities of a circuit. The
the help of low 0.5-dB insertion loss and circuits? At the circuit level, the choice thermal conductivity of the substrate
1.30:1 maximum VSWR. In spite of its of substrate or laminate material is material should be as high as possible
high power rating, the model QH7785 critical to the ultimate power-handling and dissipation factor (loss) as low as
measures just 2.3 x 0.7 x 0.15 in. in a capability of the design. The thickness possible to ensure minimal heat buildup
drop-in package. of the dielectric material as well as the on the circuit board from high input
power levels.
Designers can also mount high-power
circuits on heat sinks to improve the flow
of heat away from the circuit board. A
heat sink formed of a metal with high
thermal conductivity, such as aluminum
or copper, can aid the transfer of ther-
mal energy away from a circuit board
and prevent hot spots on the circuit at
thermal junctions, such as solder joints
for mounted components. For reliability,
the coefficient of thermal expansion
for the heat-sink material should be
as closely matched as possible to that
of the circuit-board material, so that
any expansion and contraction of the
materials as a function of temperature
is similar to avoid mechanical stresses.
Often a layer of thermal grease is added
between a heat sink and component to
facilitate the flow of heat.
Designers also have a number of
computer-aided-engineering (CAE) tools
available to create thermal models of
their designs to study the effects of dif-
ferent power levels on their circuits and
assemblies. Thermal modeling tools
such as CELSIUS from Integrated Engi-
neering Software (www.integratedsoft.
com), RadTherm from ThermoAnalyt-
ics (www.ThermoAnalytics.com), Flo-
THERM from Mentor Graphics (www.
mentor.com), Sauna from Thermal Solu-
tions (www.thermalsoftware.com),
Icepak from ANSYS (www.ansys.com),
and software modules from COMSOL
(www.comsol.com) and ITP Engines UK
(www.itp-engines.co.uk) can help iden-
tify hot spots in a design before under-
going potentially hazardous testing at
high power levels. A number of firms,
including Motorola (www.motorola.
com) and Advanced Logistics Devel-
w w phaasem
www.ph a sematririxx.com opment (www.aldservice.com), offer
877-44
4447 -277 36
447 3 6 or 400 8-
8-42
428-1000 thermal testing and modeling services
to evaluate components and circuits at
different power levels.

crosstalk
An Interview With
Dr. Lawrence Williams
NF: A lot of microwave engineers still prefer lab-based measurement techniques
to simulation tools. What do you have to say to those folks?
LW: Lab-based measurements have their place; simulations have their place. It’s
not an either/or decision. Engineers will always perform both. Of course, I believe
strongly in the value of simulation because of its flexibility and efficiency. Years
ago, at Hughes, we built the phased-array antenna for the B2 bomber. The feed
on that antenna had cross-guide couplers with crossed dog-bone-shaped slots
Lawrence Williams, Direc- coupling from one to the other waveguide. In the lab, we had a custom-machined
test fixture with roughly 100 unique slot inserts of varying slot length so that we
tor of Product Management
could measure coupling and return loss as a function of slot length. Days and
at ANSYS, has spent 16 years
days of measurements were performed to build up a design curve for that coupler.
working in design automa- Today, I can run a parametric simulation in HFSS to fully characterize that coupler
tion. He is responsible for in just a few minutes! What’s more, I can connect that coupler with models for
the strategic direction of the the rest of the feed in a circuit simulation and optimize power distribution, phase,
company’s electrical and and bandwidth while including all 3D EM effects. Many of our customers trust
electronics products includ- simulations so strongly that they now avoid prototyping such a system.
ing the High Frequency Measurements are essential for characterizing materials and/or validating
Structure Simulator (HFSS) results of larger systems that may exceed the capacity or scope of simulation.
finite-element simulator. Dr. For example, measurements are essential for characterizing nonlinear devices
Williams is an expert in the for which simulators do not exist or are unreliable.
application of three-dimen-
NF: In your opinion, what major obstacles keep microwave companies from
sional (3D) electromagnetic
adopting design-automation tools?
(EM) field simulation to the
LW: Most microwave companies use design-automation tools. The level to which
design of antennas, micro- they adopt, however, depends upon the design challenges they face. For instance,
wave components, and high- a company that produces microwave components like connectors, small antennas,
speed electronics. He has couplers, or discretes will need field solvers with parametric capability. Likewise, a
over 20 years of experience in company that produces radio-frequency integrated circuits (RF ICs) or monolithic
the fields of electromagnetics microwave ICs (MMICs) will require, at a minimum, microwave circuit simulation
and communications engi- with layout and possibly some field solvers.
neering and has published A company with larger design challenges will adopt simulation to a much
numerous technical papers greater degree. Consider a fabless semiconductor company that delivers a
on the subject. multimedia wireless-handset system-on-a-chip (SoC) that includes microwave
radio circuits and baseband processing on a single chip. That device must op-
erate in conjunction with the IC package, handset printed-circuit board (PCB),
antennas, and other components. Complicating issues is the proximity of oth-
er potentially noisy circuits like switching power regulators, the system liquid-
crystal-display (LCD) driver circuits, and other digital circuits. The company
with these design challenges will adopt design automation software to a high
degree. Radio designers use circuit simulation, layout, and field simulation.
The system engineers use field solvers for IC package modeling and extraction
of PCB parasitics. Full simulations for system integrity, radio receiver desensi-
tization, and EMI are performed by combining RF circuit simulation, 3D, and
PCB field solvers and digital circuits.
NF: What are the biggest failings in today’s software tools in terms of the needs
of microwave designers?
LW:: Today’s “biggest failings” are the same as yesterday’s “biggest failings.” Engineers

crosstalk
will always need more speed, capacity, and leveraged the ANSYS technology?
accuracy! Over the years, software vendors LW: ANSYS has a strong financial foun-
have continued to deliver simulators that
In the future, dation and vision and we concentrate on
can handle larger circuits, greater nonlin- even greater leverage of engineering simulation. We have already
earity, electrically larger geometries, and leveraged the technology by combining
the engineer’s creativity
greater accuracy. In HFSS, for example, we multiple physics into microwave simu-
released a new version with a completely will be achieved as lation. For example, the hyperthermia
automated high-performance-computing companies adopt application mentioned earlier has been
(HPC) option that allows engineers to solved by computing electromagnetic
divide a problem and solve it across a advanced computer losses in HFSS and mapping those to
network of computers. hardware and HPC. the ANSYS thermal solver to compute
the temperature gradients. We have also
NF: How do you think software tools thermal analysis in this example would linked ANSYS DesignXplorer to HFSS
have most impacted the microwave and be a very valuable addition. and Ansoft Designer. DesignXplorer
RF design process? drives HFSS in Design of Experiments
LW: The greatest impact is that simulation NF: Your firm’s HFSS tool has been used (DOE) studies, optimization, and six-
leverages the creativity of the microwave in many research projects. What are some sigma design for manufacturing. We
engineer. Engineers can try any number of its most unusual applications? worked with one of our customers to
of design ideas and quickly determine LW: The original design challenge that use the ANSYS mechanical simulator
their feasibility. Concepts that would be inspired HFSS was the quest for uniform to compute the deformation of a space-
too time consuming or costly to attempt cooking in a microwave oven. Ansoft’s borne reflector antenna due to solar
in hardware can be examined on the founder, Zoltan Cendes, began his quest radiation and then computed the far-
computer. Another result is that engineers to create a full-wave 3D finite-element field antenna pattern of the deformed
can gain understanding of the operation field solver when he worked at General dish in HFSS.
of components, circuits, or systems by Electric. It was there that he discovered
performing simulations. Finally, the cost that a direct decomposition of Maxwell’s NF: Can you tell me anything about your
and time to deliver microwave and wire- Equations at the nodes of a finite-ele- plans to leverage other ANSYS expertise
less systems would have been prohibitive ment mesh fails to predict fields reliably. going forward?
without simulation. Later, at Carnegie Mellon University, he LW: ANSYS has some fantastic bidirec-
invented tangential vector elements that tional links to mechanical computer-
NF: How do you think they will revolution- solved this problem. aided-design (CAD) frameworks like
ize microwave design in the future? We have customers who use HFSS AutoCAD, ProEngineer, Dassault, and
LW: In the future, even greater leverage of in the oil and gas business. Modern oil SolidWorks. We will leverage these links
the engineer’s creativity will be achieved exploration uses magnetic-resonance- for our 3D solvers so that users can
as companies adopt advanced computer imaging (MRI) techniques when drill- optimize geometries in HFSS and then
hardware and HPC—not only to run ing deep underground to sense mate- immediately push the dimensions back
larger problems, but many more itera- rials and detect fluid reserves. HFSS into the native CAD framework.
tions across the design space. For years, is used to design the RF coils and to We also will leverage the deep re-
microwave designers have used Monte simulate MRI detection effectiveness. lationships that ANSYS has with cus-
Carlo analysis to examine the design In the medical industry, we have tomers in the mechanical-engineering
corners of microwave circuits. Now, worked closely with researchers at world to develop even more advanced
those circuit simulations can include Duke University in their application solutions that include electrical effects.
parametric electromagnetic simulations of hyperthermia for cancer treatment. Our R&D scientists and developers are
and entire systems can be solved for thou- It turns out that the effectiveness of working closely with one another to
sands of permutations across a network traditional chemotherapy and ioniz- build on the synergies and techniques
of computers. ing radiation treatment of cancerous used in the various areas of physics and
The next phase will also include tumors is greatly enhanced if the tu- numerical methods.
more of the relevant 3D physics. RF mors are heated. HFSS has been used
power amplifiers, for instance, dissipate to design a phased-array antenna that NF: Engineering companies often balk at
significant heat. An engineer can run concentrates microwave energy in the the cost of simulation.
comprehensive harmonic balance simu- tumor to raise its temperature while LW: Simulation is only expensive if you
lation coupled to full-wave 3D models leaving surrounding tissue unaffected. don’t have significant engineering chal-
for the packaging plus circuit board par- lenges. Engineering firms spend tens of
asitics and yet still not quite predict the NF: The acquisition of Ansoft by ANSYS thousands of dollars on a simulation
performance of the amplifier due to the created quite a simulation powerhouse in only if they have problems worth the
temperature distribution. Including 3D the Pittsburgh area. How has your group expense.
visit www.mwrf.com MARCH 2010 ■ Microwaves & RF

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financialnews
Companies Pursue Technology Alliance
CASCADE MICROTECH, INC. and approaches to three-dimensional (3D) into this cutting-edge methodology,
SUSS MicroTec AG have pursued a through-silicon-via (TSV) manufactur- which is driving beyond Moore’s Law.
strategic alliance to address the growing processes. Both firms expect to use Further collaboration with device and
ing device complexities of emerging their associations with leading research reliability experts would allow the alli-
semiconductor technologies. The two organizations like IMEC as well as ance to address the complexities and
companies hope to bring innovative industry partnerships to gain insight interactions of semiconductor bonding
and test probing for next-generation
semiconductor devices.
Since the 1960s, the lithographic
scaling of chips—often referred to as
Moore’s Law—has enabled semicon-
Cover your bases ductor companies to exponentially
increase chip speed, functionality, and
with KRYTAR complexity while reducing cost. As

companies drive transistor dimensions
below 32 nm, the performance and cost
improvements of chip scaling become
less favorable. In addition, intercon-
nects increasingly limit any performance
gains. To address these interconnect
bottlenecks, emerging 3D methodolo-
gies stack one or more chips or wafers
to route between layers. Many view the
adoption of 3D TSV as the pinnacle of
3D integration, as it promises to provide
higher performance, reduced noise, a
smaller device form factor, and modu-
larity in construction at potentially
KRRYTAR
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foundeed in lower cost.
19975
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andd mannuf nufacturingg of ultra-bbro road
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Prodducts covover tthhe DC C to 67 GHz the microwavavee co
comm
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fre ge and are re desiggned for Cover your baasess. Conttact ac President and CEO of SUSS MicroTec
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companynews
trade on NASDAQ. The new brand represents a culmination

CONTRACTS of the company’s transformation over the last three years from
Northrop Grumman Corp.—Has been awarded a contract to a specialized microwave-backhaul equipment supplier to a
supply navigation and communications systems for nine 35-m provider of IP wireless-network solutions with a portfolio
patrol boats being built for the Iraqi navy. The $19-million of migration solutions and life cycle services.
firm, fixed-price contract was awarded to Northrop Grum- ARC Technologies—Has expanded its manufacturing capacity
man’s Sperry Marine business unit by Swiftships Shipbuilders by acquiring a 50,000-sq.-ft. manufacturing facility adjacent
LLC of Morgan City, LA. Work will be performed by Northrop to its existing operation in Amesbury, MA. The facility,
Grumman’s Ocean Springs, MS facility. Each of the vessels which includes new equipment for thermoplastic extrusion
will be fitted with an integrated bridge system (IBS) based and injection-molding manufacturing operations, will also
on Sperry Marine’s new-generation VisionMaster FT naviga- house a renovated sales office. The company’s growth in the
tion technology. The IBS will include navigation radars and commercial and military-electronics industries prompted this
electronic chart display and information systems running on expansion of its manufacturing capability. ARC’s operations
TotalWatch multi-function workstations. now total 150,000 sq. ft. of manufacturing, operations, sales,
RF Micro Devices—Has been awarded $3.2 million in R&D and warehousing space.
contracts by the US Department of Defense (DoD) related to Wurth Electronics—Has announced that the majority of its
gallium-nitride (GaN) microelectronics including materials, connector range has been certified to bear the UL mark by
device fabrication, and high-power circuits. The contracts Underwriters Laboratories, Inc. Connectors, such as pin
extend RFMD’s contract backlog for calendar 2010 to headers, box headers, ZIF connectors, terminal blocks, USBs,
approximately $5 million. Since calendar 2004, RFMD has RJ45s, and D Subs, now appear as UL-listed components.
been awarded approximately $13 million in R&D contracts Electro Technik Industries, Inc.—Has acquired Arizona Capaci-
by the US government. tors and its subsidiaries—West Cap of Arizona, SFE Technolo-
ViaSat, Inc.—Has been awarded a limited-production order gies, and Component Research Co. Arizona Capacitors and
valued at $14.4 million for Multifunctional Information West Cap manufacture film capacitors for the industrial and
Distribution System Joint Tactical Radio System (MIDS military markets. Arizona Capacitors builds to MIL-STD-
JTRS) terminals for the US government. The award resulted 790 and its capacitors are ISO 9001:2000 approved. It also
from a competitive procurement for 41 terminals through designs and manufactures a family of electronic filters. This
the Space and Naval Warfare Systems Command (SPAWAR). addition will put a fourth product line under the Electro
ViaSat was awarded 100 percent of the terminals in the Technik Industries (ETI) umbrella.
procurement. The MIDS JTRS terminals are for F/A-18E/F California Eastern Laboratories (CEL)—Has announced the
and E-8C Joint STARS aircraft and spares. The terminal has addition of a new international sales representative firm,
successfully completed security verification testing and is in Castle Microwave, covering the United Kingdom. Castle
the final stages of obtaining NSA certification. ViaSat expects will join CEL in marketing CEL’s MeshConnect line of IEEE
to receive conditional first-article approval this month. 802.15.4/ZigBee modules and ICs as well as modules based
Herley Industries, Inc.—Has announced that its Herley-CTI on Freescale, Texas Instruments, and Ember technologies.
subsidiary located in Whippany, NJ has received an award Comtech Xicom Technology, Inc.—Has announced that its new,
worth approximately $1.1 million for its DS wideband expanded web site is up and running at www.xicomtech.
direct-synthesizer product. This low-noise, fast-switching com. Xicom offers an extensive line of high-power amplifiers
signal source is used in the test community for antenna for satellite communications.
measurements and communications, radar, and electronic- Energy Micro—Has begun development of a companion
warfare (EW) system evaluation. The synthesizers ordered range of low-power RF transceiver products. In line with its
under this contract will be used in US Navy radar and EW microcontroller design philosophy, Energy Micro is aiming
environment simulators. to produce RF devices consuming a quarter of the energy of
existing leading-edge products. A complete family of Energy
F R E S H S TA R T S Micro RF products is planned for launch in 2011. It will
cover multiple frequency bands and support both standard
Cascade Microtech, Inc.—Has acquired the Test Systems Division and proprietary wireless protocols.
of SUSS MicroTec AG. Cascade is planning to leverage this Harris Corp.—Has acquired the technology assets of OSI
combination of resources and talent to develop advanced test Geospatial, Inc.’s land-based situational-awareness business.
capabilities. To ensure a smooth integration, the company will That technology will enhance the company’s ability to deliver
implement an infrastructure to optimize the merged resources. assured communications systems and applications for defense
For information, visit www.cascademicrotech.com. and public-safety customers. With this acquisition, Harris gains
Harris Stratex—Harris Stratex Networks, Inc. has changed its advanced software for capturing, viewing, and disseminating
name to Aviat Networks, Inc. The company’s ticker symbol critical strategic and tactical information to domestic and
will change to AVNW and its common stock will continue to international defense and public-safety customers.

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people
McLean Takes Reins At Ozmo Devices

BILL MCLEAN has joined Ozmo Devices as Chief Executive Officer.
McLean was Co-founder and CEO of GloNav, a fabless semiconductor
company that manufactured GPS receivers for the cellular market.
He sold that company to NXP (part of ST Ericsson) for $110 million
in 2008. Formerly, McLean was President and CEO of Anadigm, a
NAME
fabless-semiconductor company producing field-programmable analog
arrays (FPAAs). Additionally, he has served as President, US Opera-
tions of Parthus Technologies. He joined Parthus from Authentec, a
biometrics firm that he assisted in spinning out from Harris Corp.,
where he was Vice President and Chief Marketing Officer.
Aeroflex/Metelics—TIM EMERY Y has been which was launched on February 11,

appointed Vice President of Sales and has been inducted into the Silicon Valley
Marketing for the firm’s operations in Engineering Hall of Fame. Title studies
Sunnyvale, CA, Londonderry, NH, and the sun with primary research in the
Lawrence, MA. Emery formerly was the generation, distribution, and effects of
Vice President of Sales and Marketing the solar magnetic field throughout the
for M/A-COM. sun’s interior and outer atmosphere.
Exalt Communications—FRED CORSENTI- He led the development of tunable
NO has been named Senior Vice President, bandpass filters for space-based solar
North America Sales. Corsentino has 30 observations—a version of which is
years of experience with high-technology currently operating on the JAXA/ISAS
companies in the wireless and network- Hinode spacecraft.
ing industries. Prior to Exalt, he was the
President of Saturn Ventures.
Interop Technologies—JOSÉ ANTONIO
(TONY) MIJARES has been appointed to
the newly created position of Senior Vice
President of International Sales. He has
more than 30 years of experience in tele-
communications. At Interop, he will focus
on business development in the Carib-
bean and Latin America (CALA) and TITLE SAM
Asia regions. Mijares comes to Interop
from Airvana, where he served six years ERNI—CHOI HEE SAM M has been appointed
as Vice President of CALA sales. as the Korea Country Manager. Choi
AWR—SHERRY HESS, the firm’s Vice Presi- will expand ERNI’s business in the
dent of Marketing, has launched her blog industrial arena. He will lead nation-
on the AWR web site (www.awrcorp. wide operations, sales, marketing, and
com). The AWR blog is designed to pro- all services for ERNI’s customers, dis-
voke discussion of industry issues and tributors, and partners in Korea.
trends and provide a forum for sharing AR RF Microwave Instrumentation—
tips to maximize productivity using RF TIMOTHY RAINEAR has been named
and microwave design software. Regional Manager, North America. He
Lockheed Martin Space Systems has more than 20 years of experience in
Advanced Technology Center (ATC)— the sales and marketing of technology
DR. ALAN M. TITLE, a physicist and Prin- solutions. Most recently, Rainear was
cipal Investigator responsible for the consulting as the Vice President of Busi-
Atmospheric Imaging Assembly on the ness Development at a startup company
Solar Dynamics Observatory (SDO), based in Cambridge, MA.

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ANTENNAS: Principles, Design, and
ISQED 2010 11th International Symposium
Measurements
& Exhibits on Quality Electronic Design
May 3-6, 2010 (Annapolis, MD)
March 22-24, 2010 (San Jose, CA)
ARINC Conference Center
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Registration Fee: $1695
For more information, visit:
Topics include antenna fundamentals,
http://www isqed.org
arrays, wire antennas, broadband anten-
Exhibitions are free of charge
nas, horns, reflectors, antennas in systems,
Australian EW and IO Convention 2010 antennas for wireless communications, and
April 12-13, 2010 (Adelaide, South Australia) measurements.
Hilton Hotel Adelaide For enrollment information, contact:
For more information, visit: Leanne Traver, Northeast Consortium
www.oldcrows.org.au for Engineering Education (NCEE)
P.O. Box 68, Port Royal, VA 22535-0068
IEEE Wireless Communications & Phone: (804) 742-5611
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sions dedicated to the advance of the latest content, contact: Dr. Warren Stutzman
wireless and wireless technologies. Virginia Tech, ECE Dept. 011
For more information, contact: Heather Ann Blacksburg, VA 24061
Sweeney, IEEE Communications Society Phone: (540) 231-8401
Phone: (212) 705-8938 Web site: antenna@usit.net
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European Microwave Week

Sept. 26-Oct. 1, 2010 (Paris, France) CALL FOR PAPERS
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Dec. 6-10, 2010 (Miami, FL) For conference information and submission
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goto?direct_2009-10_INC_21 Paper submission must be done on-line
through the conference web site at:
CST 2009 Innovations www.isqed-asia.org.
Computer Simulation Technology (CST) The guidelines for the final paper format
announces a series of customer-centric are provided on the symposium web site.
workshops focusing on how innovations in E-mail: info2010@isqed-asia.org.
EM simulation can help solve high-frequen- Paper submission deadline: March 16, 2010
cy system design challenges. Acceptance notification: April 24, 2010
Details of the CST Innovations workshop Final camera-ready paper: June 2, 2010
series’ initial program and location informa-
tion can be found at: IEEE International Symposium
http://www.cst.com/Content/Events/ on Phased Array Systems and
Workshops.aspx Technology
For more information, contact: Oct. 12-15, 2010 (Boston, MA)
Ruth Jackson Westin Waltham Hotel
Marketing Communications, CST For more information, visit:
Phone: +49 6151 7303-752 www.array2010.org
visit www.mwrf.com MARCH 2010 ■ Microwaves & RF

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IF/RF MICROWAVE COMPONENTS 455 rev C
R & finan-
Droundup
Algorithm WHEN EVALUATING PROBLEMS like the radar cross obtained from model order reduction techniques
section (RCS) of an object, the system response like Padé via Lanczos (PVL) via AWE and its
Nails Sweep must often be calculated at multiple frequencies. If variants. It overcomes the loss of accuracy as
Calculations traditional frequency-domain numerical methods the order increases due to the explicit moment-
Of EM Wave are used to accomplish this task, a dense matrix
equation must be solved at each frequency. Several
matching process and the ill-conditioned Padé
coefficient matrix.
Scatterings approaches can alleviate this time-consuming com- In their work, the researchers investigate the
putational burden. To further speed processing, a variation of the dielectric properties of the ceramic
model-order reduction algorithm for the volume BaxLA4Ti2 + xO12 + 3xx in the sub-1-GHz range
electric-field-integral-equation (EFIE) formulation for various values of x in a frequency sweep
has been presented by Patrick Bradley, Conor analysis. Next, they apply the WCAWE method
Brennan, and Marissa Condon from Dublin City to circumvent the computational complexity
University’s School of Electronic Engineering. associated with the numerical solution of such
This algorithm vows to achieve fast and accurate formulations. The researchers also demonstrate
frequency sweep calculations of electromagnetic a multipoint, automatic WCAWE method that
(EM) wave scattering. can produce an accurate solution over a much
Spec
Sp ecif
ific
ical
ally
ly, th
thee re
rese
sear
arch
cher
erss us
usee an eff
effic
icie
ient
nt broa
br oade
derr ba
band
ndwi
widt
dth
h. SSev
ever
eral
al num
numer
eric
ical
al eexa
xamp
mple
less
and mathematically stable, projection-based are provided to illustrate the accuracy and robust-
algorithm for model-order reduction called the ness of the proposed methods. For varying con-
well-conditioned asymptotic waveform evalua- trast profiles, a significant reduction in system
tion (WCAWE). They then apply that algorithm size can be achieved. See “Efficient Wideband
to the volume EFIE formulation. The algorithm Electromagnetic Scattering Computation for
produces a well-conditioned and higher-order Frequency Dependent Lossy Dielectrics Using
approximation from a single expansion point WCAWE,” IEEE Transactions On Antennas And
with a significantly wider bandwidth than that Propagation, October 2009, p. 3274.
Spin-Torque GENERALLY, THE SYNTHESIZERS in today’s wireless

consumer-electronics products are based on several
several gigahertz, can be tuned by both a DC bias
current and an external DC magnetic field. The
Nano-Oscillators single-frequency RF voltage-controlled oscilla- main advantage of this spin torque nano-oscillator
Eye Frequency- tors (VCOs). The leading technology combines (STNO) is that it is more than 50X smaller than
standalone high-quality, low-frequency quartz- a standard LC-tank VCO designed in a CMOS
Synthesis ICs crystal resonators and integrated high-frequency, process. In addition, its tuning range can reach
low-quality LC tank-based phase-locked loops 100-percent bandwidth for carrier frequencies
(PLLs). In future mobile phones, however, a from 1 to 10 GHz. Because this oscillator also is
different approach will be needed to cover both fully compatible with standard CMOS processes,
current and future communication standards. A it clearly has the potential to serve future RF
potentiiall sollution
i h has emerged d iin an R
RF
F nano- transceivers.
i
oscillator based on spintronics, which hails from According to the first measurements on a
Frank Badets from STMicroelectronics (Grenoble, hybrid built connecting the STNO to a dedicated
France), Jordan Katine and Daniele Mauri from wideband amplifier, power performance is close
Hitachi Global Storage Technologies (San Jose, but not yet compatible with telecommunications-
CA), Ursula Ebels and Dimitri Houssameddine standard requirements. Output power can be
from CEA-Spintec (Grenoble, France), and Patrick enhanced by optimizing the STNO magnetic
Villard, Bertrand Delaet, Pierre Vincent, Marie- stack composition and combining tunnel junc-
Claire Cyrille, Bernard Viala, Jean-Philippe Michel, tions with improved magnetic stack concepts
and Jérôme Prouvée from CEA-Léti, MINATEC that have so far only been tested for spin valve
(Grenoble, France). structures. Using time-domain analysis, the
Their nano-sized oscillator for RF applications researchers also show that frequency fluctua-
is based on two spintronic effects: the tunnel tions are an issue for spectral purity. As a specific
magnetoresistance (TMR) and spin momentum characterization method is needed, approaches
transfer torque. Negative resistance is provided including time-domain analysis, PLL, and injec-
by the spin momentum transfer, which results tion lock ring oscillator are currently being
from a spin-polarized current flowing into a investigated. See “A GHz Spintronic-Based RF
nano-sized (sub-100-nm) magneto-resistive Oscillator,” IEEE Journal Of Solid-State Circuits,
device. The device’s oscillation frequency, which is January 2010, p. 214.

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IF/RF MICROWAVE COMPONENTS 377 rev S
Highest Dynamic Range
Mixers—Only 660mW
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Parameters LTC5540 LTC5541 LTC5542 LTC5543
1-800-4-LINEAR
600MHz to 1.3GHz to 1.6GHz to 2.3GHz to
Operating Frequency
1.3GHz 2.3GHz 2.7GHz 4.0GHz
Input IP3 26dBm 26.4dBm 26.4dBm 24.5dBm
Conversion Gain 8dB 8dB 8dB 8dB
Noise Figure (NF) 9.9dB 9.6dB 9.9dB 10.2dB
NF @ 5dBm Blocking 16.2dB 16.0dB 17.3dB 17.5dB

, LTC, LT, LTM, Linear Technology and the Linear logo are
Power Consumption 0.66W 0.63W 0.65W 0.66W registered trademarks of Linear Technology
T Corporation. All other
trademarks are the property of their respective owners.
DUALMODE BPFS
DesignFeature
Tune Out Spurious

In Dual-Mode BPFs
By optimizing a microstrip filter’s coupling structure,
it is possible to achieve small size and wide rejection
bandwidth while accounting for fabrication tolerances.
M
iniature filters are es- tion bandwidth introduced by higher-order
LEI ZHANG sential for wireless resonance of the microstrip loop resonators.
Lecturer
WEI HONG communications sys- Three techniques are often used to suppress
Professor tems although they of- harmonics in a microstrip loop-based fil-
JIANYI ZHOU ten suffer from limited ter. One is by using slow-wave structures
Professor rejection bandwidths. to move the parasitic passband.8-10 The
WEI KANG However, through the other two methods are by adding frequency-
Design Engineer use of a modified cou- notched structures such as spur-line or de-
State Key Laboratory of Millimeter pling structure for harmonic suppression, it fected ground structures at the input/output
Wave, School of Information
Science and Engineering,
has been possible to design a dual-mode fil- lines11-15 and using modified ring resonators
Southeast University, ter capable of wide rejection bandwidth and with characteristic mode suppression or
Nanjing, China, 210096, 20-dB rejection through 8.5 GHz. transmission zeros.16-20 However, these tech-
e-mail: zhang@seu.edu.cn, A number of dual-mode filters1-4 have niques add size and loss due to the additional
e-mail: weihong@seu.edu.cn, been developed based on microstrip square circuit elements. Several improved coupling
Internet: www.seu.edu.cn. loop resonators.5-7 The main drawback structures enhance coupling strength and
of these kinds of filters is the limited rejec- reduce the insertion loss for single-mode and
dual-mode resonators or filters.23-25
s Ls Figure 1(a) shows the geometrical
s ws
configuration of a square-loop resonator
ws with conventional line-to-ring coupling
wp wp structure. Theoretically, there are two sec-
L L ond-order resonant modes in a side-coupled
loop resonator, with orthogonal field distri-
ws ws butions.26 But for a resonator with coupling
structure shown in Fig. 1(a), only one of the
(a) (b) two modes, the transverse magnetic TM210e
L
mode, will be excited. This mode has four
ws
electric field maximums at the middle of
ws ws wp each side line of the square loop. The other
L mode, the TM210m mode, having four elec-
vias vias tric field maximums at the four corners of
wp
the loop, is suppressed due to the symmetry
of the coupling structure with respect to the
Ls ws Ls feed line. To suppress both modes, the con-
(c) s (d) s
ventional coupling structure is modified by
Coupling structures for square loop resonator with wp = 0.55 mm, ws = 0.2 mm, s = 0.15 bending and extending the coupling arms to
mm, L = 8.7 mm, where (a) is the conventional structure and (d) is the modified structure. form a pair of parasitic resonators [Fig. 1(b)];
Microwaves & RF ■ MARCH 2010 visit www.mwrf.com 57

DUALMODE BPFS
DesignFeature
0
ws ws
–10 p p wp p
wp ws ws ws
Offset Offset
–20
L wp L L
S21—dB
Ls Ls
–30
ws
s s s Lt
–40
Structure b: Ls = 4.8 mm (a) (b) (c)
–50 Structure c: Ls = 3.95 mm
Structure d: Ls = 4.5 mm
3. Geometrical configuration of DMFs with wp = 0.55 mm, ws = 0.2
–60
mm, s = 0.15 mm, L = 8.7 mm. (a) Conventional DMF with p = 0.9 mm,
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 and (b) modified DMF with Ls = 5.4 mm, offset = 0.9 mm, p = 1.1 mm,
Frequency—GHz
and (c) modified DMF with Ls = 5.2 mm, offset = 0.9 mm, Lt = 0.5 mm,
2. Frequency responses of resonators with different coupling structures. p = 1.1 mm.
second harmonics can be suppressed As a result, harmonic resonances at with the same loop dimension as the
by tuning open stub length, Ls. the resonant frequency are suppressed single-mode resonators. By tuning Ls,
Figure 1(c) shows another improved (Fig. 2). Figure 3 shows the differences second-order harmonics can be effec-
version of the coupling structure, in harmonic suppression of these dif- tively suppressed (Fig. 5). Because the
where the bent coupling arms are ferent coupling structures. Due to its coupling lines are arranged asymmet-
placed inside the resonator with the shorter coupling length, the resonator rically with respect to the feed lines,
input/output lines connected to the of coupling structure (c) achieves a both of the second-order resonant
coupling arms by via holes. Based on slightly wider stopband compared to modes will be excited at different fre-
these two line-to-ring coupling struc- structure (b). For the resonator of the quencies when the stub length is not
tures, a modified coupling structure modified coupling structure, the cou- properly tuned (Fig. 5). Thus, the stub
was developed by rearranging the pling length is one-half that of (b). length should be optimized to suppress
coupling arms [Fig. 1(d)]. Resonators The modified coupling structure in both second-order resonant modes.
with different coupling structures Fig. 1(d) was adapted to the design of The dimensions of the perturbation
were simulated on a substrate with a a dual-mode filter (DMF) [Fig. 4(b)]. element, coupling gap, stub length
thickness of 0.635 mm and a relative A small square patch was attached to and feed line offset can be optimized
dielectric constant of 10.2. The funda- an inner corner of the loop for excit- for different fractional bandwidths
mental resonant frequency is assumed ing and coupling a pair of degenerate together with second-order harmonic
to be 3.4 GHz. Due to the resonant modes. A dual-mode filter with con- suppression. Figure 6 shows simulated
condition of these coupling structures, ventional line-to-ring coupling struc- frequency responses for filters with
most of the energy transferred from ture was also designed for comparison different dimensions, with values for
the input port is concentrated in the [Fig. 4(a)]. These filters were fabricated the filters listed in the table. For the
coupling structure and little energy is on the same substrate described by same dimension of coupling gap s
transferred into the loop resonator. the simulation of the resonators, and and nearly equal coupling length, the
0 0
–10 –10
–20 –20
S21—dB
–30 –30
S21—dB
–40 –40
–50 CON –50 Filter 1

MOD –60 Filter 2
–60 NO Filter 3
–70 Filter 4
–70
–80
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9
Frequency—GHz Frequency—GHz
4. Simulated frequency responses of conventional DMF (CON), modified DMF 5. Simulated frequency responses of conventional and modified
with optimization (MOD), and modified DMF without optimization (NO). DMFs with different bandwidth.

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IF/RF MICROWAVE COMPONENTS 450 Rev E
DUALMODE BPFS
DesignFeature
modified filter shows lower insertion filter with modified coupling (filter 4), 4(c) can be used to further improve the
loss and wider bandwidth. This is the gap distance s in a conventional filter performance when fabrication
because the bent coupling lines with filter must be less than 0.1 mm, at the tolerances are considered. When the
offset position enhance the coupling limit of conventional printed-circuit- open stub length is changed from 5.2
strength in the resonant mode. To get board (PCB) fabrication processes. mm to 5.6 mm, the second-order har-
the same bandwidth as the dual-mode Another modified structure in Fig. monic suppression is degraded to 25
Ls = 5.2 mm Ls = 5.0 mm
0 0 Ls = 5.1 mm
Ls = 5.3 mm
–10 Ls = 5.4 mm –10 Ls = 5.2 mm
Ls = 5.5 mm Ls = 5.3 mm
–20 Ls = 5.6 mm –20 Ls = 5.4 mm
S21—dB
S21—dB
–30 –30
–40 –40
–50 –50
–60 –60
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9
Frequency—GHz Frequency—GHz
6. Simulated frequency responses of DMF with modified coupling 7. Simulated frequency responses of DMF with modified coupling
structure shown in Fig. 4(b) change with Ls. structure shown in Fig. 4(c) change with Ls.
1,239 ,580
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DUALMODE BPFS
DesignFeature
dB when coupling structure in Fig. 4(b)

Comparing dimensions and specifications for filters
is used (Fig. 7). By introducing another
offset Lt between the feed line and the
with modified coupling structure
end of the coupling line in Fig. 4(c), FILTER FILTER 1 FILTER 2 FILTER 3 FILTER 4
DIMENSION (CONVENTIONAL) (MODIFIED) (MODIFIED) (MODIFIED)
there is no visible degradation when
the open stub length is changed from p (mm) 0.9 1.1 1.1 1.1
5 mm to 5.3 mm ((Fig. 8). This is prob- s (mm) 0.15 0.25 0.2 0.15
ably because in the modified structure Ls (mm) — 5.2 5.15 5.3
the change of current strength at the Offset (mm) — 0.6 0.6 0.9
junction of the feed line and coupling Bandwidth 7.7 percent 5.8 percent 6.9 percent 9.8 percent
line is less compared to the structure
IL (dB) 1.07 1.34 1.15 0.88
without offset when the length of
open stub is changed, then the har-
monic suppression is less sensitive to mode filters based on conventional the measured passband and wideband
the change of the open stub length. and two modified coupling structures frequency responses of the filters. The
When Lt is changed within the values were designed using IE3D full-wave measured center frequencies and fre-
of fabrication tolerance, there is no simulation software from Zeland quency notches are slightly lower than
visible degradation in second-order Software (www.zeland.com) and fab- the simulation results, due to fabrica-
harmonic response (Fig. 9). ricated on a duroid substrate with tion tolerances and the sensitivity of
To verify the effectiveness of the relative dielectric constant of 10.2 the frequency notch to the open stub
harmonic suppression technique and and thickness of 0.635 mm (Fig. 10). length, respectively. The filter with
demonstrate its application for fil- Figure 4 shows the dimensions of the modified coupling structure based on
ter and resonator design, three dual- three filters, while Figs. 11 and 12 plot Continued on p. 65
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Inside
A SUPPLEMENT OF MICROWAVES & RF
AMPLIFIERS & OSCILLATORS

p
Wha
New
pages 4,6,7
?
Amplifiers & Oscillators
Gallium-Nitride
GaN Power
Transistors Gain
1 Power Transistors Military users
ers help ddrive
rive the
h
Grow Beyond Niche developme ent of Ga aN
aN power
Although the military is
transistors,
r , but co
rs, ommercial
o
still driving GaN transistor
developments, these devices
are satisfying an increasing
Ground In Military designers are now taking
advantage e off the te
technology’s
echnology’s
echnology’s
amount of commercial needs.
4 Amplifier Extends
Function-Generator
And Commercial many bene efits.
Output Levels
Cables And Connectors

Applications ASHOK BINDRA/Technology Writer
Calibration Methods
A
mplifier makers have begun to tap the benefits of gallium-nitride (GaN) RF
5 Aid Testing Of Non-
Insertable Devices power transistors for emerging defense and commercial applications. Thanks
Newer network analyzers to this growing demand, GaN device developers are getting ready to take these
offer instructions on setup wide-bandgap compound-semiconductor devices to mass production. A few may have already
and calibration for non-
stepped into production mode, while others are qualifying fabrication processes and charac-
insertable connectors.
terizing parts for mass production this year.
7 New Products
An example is RF Micro Devices (www.rfmd.com), which is in the process of qualifying 17
Check out some recent
advancements in cable new GaN devices for production. These GaN parts cover frequencies from 30 MHz to 4 GHz
assemblies. with output power ranging from 8 to 500 W. Five of these devices belong to the unmatched
power transistor (UPT) line, while three devices are part of the matched power transistor
Passive Components
(MPT) family. Likewise, the broadband power transistor (BPT) series will offer six devices
News & Products and the power integrated-circuit (IC) category includes three high-power multichip modules
7 Simulation and alternative-
energy trends are spotlighted
(MCMs). The MCM amplifiers comprise GaN
here in addition to the latest transistor die and gallium-arsenide (GaAs)-based SiN passivation
in dividers, couplers, and integrated passive circuits, which are encased in Source
Drain
more. Gate
a single package. Passive circuits include imped-
GaN cap (d)
ance-matching transformers, stabilization, and
bias-decoupling components. AlGaN barrier (d, Al percent)
According to RFMD, a 48-V, 30-W GaN

GaN buffer
UPT transistor, dubbed the RF3931, has already
achieved full production qualification. It is being Si-SiC substrate
shipped to multiple high-power-amplifier (HPA)
manufacturers. The other four members of the 1. This graphic shows a cross section of GaN-on-
UPT family are expected to go into production SiC high-electron-mobility transistor (HEMT).
over the next two quarters. Ranging from 10 to
120 W, these wide-bandwidth UPT power transistors are intended for high-efficiency HPAs
that target a broad range of applications, including cellular and WiMAX infrastructure, cable-
television (CATV), military communications, public mobile radio (PMR), and radar jammers.
In addition, it is eying applications that will exploit the high efficiency of its GaN transistors
to reduce energy costs. In essence, RFMD has targeted five markets for its GaN power tran-
sistors: cellular base stations, industrial/emerging market, military electronic warfare (EW),
military and PMR communications, and military/civilian radars.
A Supplement to Microwaves & RF / focus

s S1
Focus
According to Jeff Shealy, VP and Sampling Of Latest Production-Ready

General Manager for the firm’s Defense
GaN HEMTs
and Power business unit, “Our state-of-
the-art GaN process technology delivers Supplier Part number Frequency Output Typical Operating
range (GHz) power (W) gain (dB) voltage (V)
superior RF power per square millimeter
and superior RF conversion efficiency Cree CGH40180PP To 4.0 1801 192 28
as compared to current semiconduc- Eudyna Devices EGNB010MK To 3.5 12.63 133 50
tor technologies.” The supplier’s 0.5- Nitronex NPT1007 To 1.2 200 4
18.3 5
28
μm-gate-length GaN1 process, which is RF Micro Devices RF3931 To 3.0 304 20.05 48
optimized for power density and effi-
ciency, has demonstrated a mean-time- Toshiba America TGI 7785-120L 7.7 to 8.5 120 11.0 24
to-failure (MTTF) of 30 million hours Electronic
Components
at a channel temperature of +200°C and
drain-source voltage (Vds) of 48 V. It TriQuint TGA2540-FL 0.03 to 3.0 8.96 19.5 28
Semiconductor
boasts power density of 7.5 W/mm.
1. At saturation 4. P3dB CW power at 900 MHz
After successfully qualifying the pro- 2. Measured at 1 GHz 5. Measured at 900 MHz
cess for its high-power GaN-on-silicon- 3. Power output at P3dB, gain measured at 3.5 GHz 6. P1dB output
carbide (GaN-on-SiC) high-electron-
mobility-transistor (HEMT) technology, characterized. They will be released to signals to 6 GHz while the four higher-
RFMD announced the formation of a production by the middle of this quarter. power members are crafted for operation
GaN-foundry-service business unit (Fig. These GaN transistors, which cover 500 to 4 GHz. Two recent additions—the
1). According to the maker, it prefers MHz to 6 GHz, are designed to deliver CGH40120F and CGH40180PP—claim
SiC substrate for its superior thermal 5 to 60 W continuous-wave (CW) input to provide high efficiency and power
conductivity, low temperature-related power at 1-dB compression. Housed in under continuous-wave (CW) opera-
memory effects, and high power den- a plastic package, the 5-W part offers 58 tion. For both new general-purpose
sity. By improving its GaN process, the percent power-added efficiency (PAE) parts, PAE is rated at 70 percent in Class
company also plans to develop transis- with 11 dB gain at 6 GHz. The higher- AB amplifier configuration.
tors that will enable it to build efficient power versions are encased in ceramic Introduced about a year ago, the
broadband HPAs with high linearity. packages. two C-band HEMT devices also are in
Its second-generation process, GaN2, For defense-communications appli- production, states Cree’s Director of
is expected to be released by the end of cations like joint tactical radio service Marketing, Tom Dekker. “Military has
this year while its third-generation pro- (JTRS) and counter-improvised-explo- been the early adopter of the technology
cess, GaN3, is in the R&D phase. sive-device (IED) EW systems, TriQuint and more applications are taking advan-
has released a GaN-based power ampli- tage of GaN transistors. We are growing
SiC Substrates fier (PA) in a flange package. This PA handsomely and the business is expand-
For more than a decade, TriQuint offers at least 8 W of output power ing,” Dekker asserts. In the commercial
Semiconductor (www.triquint.com) has at 1-dB compression with 40 percent world, telecommunications and medical
been leading GaN-on-SiC R&D efforts PAE from 30 to 3000 MHz. Because the applications are looking for amplifiers
for the Defense Advanced Research TGA2540-FL is classified as XI(c) under that offer a smaller footprint, high effi-
Projects Agency (DARPA) and other International Traffic in Arms Regulations ciency, and high bandwidth. According
military applications. The company has (ITAR), it is available to US-based manu- to Dekker, GaN technology meets those
since extended that expertise and expe- facturers. An export license is required demands. Cree is planning to add three
rience to both standard products and for international shipments. to five new parts every quarter this year.
foundry service. Subsequently, discrete Another SiC backer—Cree, Inc. Presently, there are only two GaN-
die-level, GaN-on-SiC HEMT power (www.cree.com)—is in production based monolithic-microwave-integrat-
transistors were unveiled for both mili- mode with its general-purpose GaN- ed-circuit (MMIC) amplifiers in the
tary and commercial applications. Now, on-SiC HEMT transistors along with product portfolio. Yet the manufactur-
the manufacturer has packaged these those tailored for C-band and third- er is planning to expand the line this
n-channel parts for sampling to select generation/Long Term Evolution (3G/ year with MMICs tailored for higher
customers. LTE) and WiMAX applications. The power and efficiency. Currently, the
According to TriQuint’s Marketing seven unmatched HEMT transistors in CMPA0060005 is a wideband 5-W dis-
Manager, Mike Lincoln, the five discrete- the general-purpose series offer satu- tributed amplifier operating from DC to
packaged GaN-on-SiC n-channel HEMT rated output power from 10 to 220 W. 6 GHz. Its sibling, the CMPA2560025,
transistors are in the process of being The three lower-power models handle is a 25-W reactively matched ampli-
S2 focus March/2010
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Focus
fier operating from 2.5 to 6.0 GHz. satellite applications. The TGI 7785- The firm also claims that GaN-on-
The MMICs can be combined to 120L operates from 7.7 to 8.5 GHz with Si HEMT devices are inherently more
achieve higher power and gain. From output power of 120 W. This inter- cost effective than SiC substrates. Over
2.5 to 6.0 GHz, for example, a pair nally matched transistor is designed to the years, the company has developed
of CMP2560025s driven by the achieve high power nearly a dozen different GaN-on-Si
CMPA0060005 can offer more density. HEMT transistors for both military and
than 40 dB gain with output TAEC also has commercial applications—with all still
power to 50 W. released two addi- in production. In fact, its first-genera-
Eudyna Devices, tional parts. The tion GaN-on-Si platform was formally
Inc. (www.eudyna.jp) Ku-band TGI1314- qualified and released to production
is another proponent 50L operates from 13.75 in October 2006. To boost the power
of SiC substrate for to 14.5 GHz with 50 W level to 200 W for applications to 1.2
GaN HEMTs. An early 22. Thi
This 200
200-W
W GaN-on-Si
G N Si output power while the GHz, the manufacturer recently com-
entrant into this space, HEMT is housed in a thermally X-band TGI1011-50-771 bined two 100-W devices in a single
the Japanese supplier has enhanced, ceramic-air-cavity covers 11.3 to 11.5 GHz package. Offering simultaneously high
targeted cellular-base- bolt-down package. with 50 W output power. gain and efficiency from 14 to 28 V, the
station and WiMAX- The Ku-band part is 200-W NPT1007 comes in a thermally
infrastructure applications for its line of aimed at satellite applications while the enhanced, ceramic-air-cavity bolt-down
GaN HEMTs. Eudyna’s GaN HEMTs, X-band unit targets industrial markets. package (Fig. 2).
which can deliver more than 100 W According to TAEC, devices in other The supplier also is readying highly
from a single package, are commercially bands with higher output power are in integrated MMIC amplifiers and high-
available. Among the latest additions the works. voltage GaN transistors for radar appli-
are the EGNB010MK, EGNB030MK, cations. Initially, it is developing 48-V,
EGNB045MK, and EGNB070MK with GaN-On-Silicon HEMTs 50-Ω input/output-matched MMIC
nominal output powers of 12.6, 45, 56, A unique approach is taken by Nitronex amplifiers in the 10-to-20-W range with
and 90 W, respectively. They operate to (www.nitronex.com), which has adopt- plans for more than 300 W in the future.
3.5 GHz. ed 100-mm silicon as the substrate of With the rapid adoption of GaN-based
In volume production of GaN devices choice for its GaN devices. High-quality RF power transistors, such suppliers also
since 2008, Toshiba America Electronic silicon substrates are affordable, scal- have been urged by amplifier designers to
Components, Inc. (www.toshiba.com/ able, consistent, and plentiful, thanks to develop device models for their respec-
taec) continues to expand its GaN more than 50 years of use in the micro- tive parts. An example is Nitronex and
HEMT product portfolio. At last year’s electronics industry. In addition, the Modelithics (www.modelithics.com),
International Microwave Symposium yield is high. Nitronex asserts that it can which inked a partnership to develop
(IMS), the company unveiled its first potentially scale its GaN-on-Si produc- nonlinear models for Nitronex’s high-
commercial C-band GaN HEMT for tion to 150-mm wafers. power GaN-on-Si HEMT devices.
?
Amplifier Extends Function Generators To 50 V Peak-To-Peak
What The 33502A external output amplifier provides as much as 50-Vpk-pk amplification of function/arbitrary
New waveforms. This two-channel, isolated amplifier is designed to work with existing function generators
to extend output levels with minimal distortion. It is suited for applications requiring levels greater than
20 Vpk-pk. It also has a programmable pass-through mode for use in high-
voltage applications. The 33502A has a fully isolated front end offering 5X
voltage amplification. It can be independently configured with input cou-
pling (AC/DC) and input impedance (50 Ω/1 MΩ) to match specific circuits.
The input path also can be switched from amplified to direct (unamplified)
without removing or reconnecting cables. The 33502A has a two-unit,
half-rack mechanical form factor, which fits well as a bench-top unit or in
a test system. It is configured with LAN (LXI Class-C compliant) and USB
interfaces. P&A: $2600 for the base model; available now.
Agilent Technologies, Inc., 5301 Stevens Creek Blvd., Santa Clara, CA
95051; (408) 345-8886, FAX: (408) 345-8474, e-mail: contact_us@agilent.
com, Internet: www.agilent.com/find/33502A.
S4 focus March/2010
Focus
CABLES & CONNECTORS
The device’s response is displayed on a

graphical overlay, which shows the mea-
surement result in logarithmic or linear
format. Depending on the VNA used,
other formats can be simultaneously
added to the display.
Adapter removal: Although this
Network-Analyzer Accuracy
method produces a very accurate mea-
surement, it is labor intensive and requires
connecting and disconnecting adapters
For High-Frequency Connectors

from the test-port cables. Should any of
them come loose, it introduces measure-
ment errors into the calibration plane.
Calibration states must also be saved for
RONNIE RICE E/Technicaal Director, RF Precision Products Division each adapter on every port in the ana-
RF Industries, 7610 Miiramar Rd., San Diego, CA 92126-4202; lyzer’s memory. In addition, it is necessary
(858) 549-6340, FAX: (858) 549-6345, Internet: www. to “recall” the states after the calibration
rfindustries.com steps are complete and the data is joined
together using a complex algorithm gen-
A
ccurately for these types of devices. The menus also erated by the analyzer’s software.
charactter- include instructions for fixed mechani- Swap equal adapters: This method
izing coaaxial cal calibration standards and electronic- is by far less labor intensive and has been
connectors requiress a calibration (Ecal) modules. proven to produce repeatable results.
high-frequency network
netw Both test ports are calibrated using the
analyzer—especially at frequencies above Methods For Enhanced Calibration open short and load standards (or Ecal
1 GHz. Unfortunately, complications can Zero-length thru: The most proficient module). One of the port adapters is
arise when testing adapters or cable assem- and fastest VNA calibration method is then removed and a high-quality, phase-
blies that have connector ends that do not called the “Zero-Length Thru” method. equal adapter is attached for the trans-
attach directly to the network analyzer’s If testing for an insertable device, the mission portion of the calibration pro-
test ports. When testing non-insertable test ports are calibrated individually and cedure. Traditionally, this method uses
devices, careful measurement techniques then connected directly together during an adapter that matches the DUT’s exact
and calibration methods are required to the “transmission” sequence.2 No delay, phase and delay characteristics. Yet this
achieve the highest accuracy. loss, capacitance, or inductance compen- type of adapter is not always available,
A non-insertable device is a component sation is required during this process. The which means that it must be custom-built
with interconnecting ends that differ from calibration plane is now at the test-port in most cases. To include this type of
the analyzer’s test-port connectors ((Fig. 1). connector’s electrical reference plane. The adapter in the calibration set, the stored
It could have the same gender or connec- DUT is inserted between the test ports. set is re-written. In addition, the adapter’s
tors with differing families, requiring the
use of “between-series” adapters to mate Insertable Non-Insertable
the connectors. An adapter adds its own
electrical contributions to the test setup,
such as insertion loss and return loss.
Because of the inability to remove these
errors during calibration, the device under
test (DUT) will introduce errors in the
PORT 1 PORT 2 PORT 3 PORT 4 PORT 1 PORT 2 PORT 3 PORT 4
measurement plane in both cases. Newer
network analyzers, however, come with
software/firmware that offers enhanced
calibration methods for measuring non-
insertable devices.1 In fact, many of today’s
analyzers have instructions built into the
calibration menus. These instructions
describe the setup and calibration steps
that are needed to include error correction 1. Shown is an insertable versus non-insertable test-port
p attachment.

s S5
Focus
CABLES & CONNECTORS
to be set based on the devices’ velocity and

can also display the one-way response ver-
sus the traditional two-way response. The
units of length can be selected to display
millimeter, inch, or feet. Another feature is
the APE function, which allows an adapter
or cable jumper to be added onto one or
both of the calibrated ports. Applying APE
after the initial calibration will automati-
cally compensate for the added length by
2. These test
2 test-port
port cables feature interchangeable phase
phase-equal
equal adapters.
adapters an extrapolation of the curved-fit algo-
rithm containing loss, delay, and other
delay and other characteristics must be rected measurements. The connectors are characteristics of the extension adapter
known before re-writing the calibration usually different at each end of the DUT. or cable jumper. The adjusted calibration
set. A better approach is to have test-port With no practical means to calibrate this reference plane is shifted to the open end
cables that allow one to change the test- type of device, the engineer is left to of the adapter. Using a lab-grade short or
port connectors ((Fig. 2). After calibrat- decide which calibration kit to use as open is all that is required for this feature
ing both ports, the calibrated adapter is the reference standard for one end while to correct the intrinsic errors in the added
removed from one of the test-port cables. ignoring the other. port extension(s).
A high-quality phase-equal adapter is By carefully following the setup and The right microwave test equipment
then attached in its place for the trans- calibration steps, one can correct for non- and accessories are mandatory for con-
mission step. After the through portion of insertable or between-series devices. A nector manufacturers who want to lead
the calibration procedure is complete, the couple of features to highlight are the the ever-changing wireless communica-
original calibrated port adapter can be re- intermediate-frequency-bandwidth tions industry. Applying these enhanced
installed. The loss and reflection from the (IFBW), additional time domain, and calibration techniques correctly assures
uncalibrated phase-equal adapter (used as automatic-port-extension (APE) settings. repeatable error-corrected measurements
the through) is negligible, adding almost The IFBW on PNA models from Agilent each time.
no error into the measurement. Technologies, for example, can be adjust- Reference
1 Agilent Application Notes 1291-1B and 1287-3, www.
Between series: This example pres- ed to 10 Hz or below, which allows the agilent.com
ents the most challenging of all methods noise floor to be lowered significantly. The 2 Commonly known as the “thru” sequence of the
calibration set up
when calibrating for repeatable error-cor- time domain menu allows physical length
?
Cable Assemblies Promise
What Reliable Performance
Cable Assemblies Wrap PTFE
Dielectric In Copper Braid
New Through 6 GHz
For cost-sensitive applications, 50- and
A range of standard-length flexible cable assemblies features
twodouble-screenedcoaxial-cabletypes.Overtheinnerconduc-
75-Ω quick-turn RG cable assemblies tor of silver-plated copper-clad steel, the solid polytetrafluoro-
vow to provide reliable performance ethylene (PTFE) dielectric is wrapped with a silver-plated copper
through 6 GHz. Built to withstand mili- spiral strip. The silver-plated, copper-wire braid outer conductor
tary environments, the assemblies han- is covered with a blue fluorinated-ethylene-propylene (FEP)
dle operating temperatures from −55° jacket. Standard lengths range from 1 to 60 in.—measured from
to +200°C. They offer shielding effec- the connector reference planes—in outer-diameter sizes of 0.086
tiveness ranging from 40 to 60 dB. The or 0.141 in. nominal. At 18.0 GHz, a 12-in. assembly in the 0.141-in.
cables come with outside diameters of size typically exhibits insertion loss of 0.9 dB with VSWR of 1.30:1,
0.098, 0.195, and 0.390 in. The assemblies also can be supplied 70.7 percent velocity of propagation, and 90-dB shielding
with a wide range of coaxial-connector types including 7/16, BNC, effectiveness. It boasts insulation resistance of 1000 MΩ with
Type N, MCX, MHV, SHV, TNC, UHF, MMCX, and MIL-qualified a power rating of 40 W CW. To minimize cable twist during
for harsh environments. They are available in a variety of construc- fitting, the series features stainless-steel SMA connectors with
tions using a wide range of dielectric, jacket, and shield materials anti-torque bodies.
depending on performance requirements. Atlantec RF, 40A Springwood Dr., Braintree, Essex CM7
Electronic Assembly Manufacturing, 126 Merrimack St., Methuen, 2YN England; +44 (0) 1376 550220, FAX: +44 (0) 1376
MA 01844; (978) 374-6840, FAX: (978) 374-6375, e-mail: sales@ 552145, e-mail: sales@AtlanTecRF.com, Internet: www.
eamcableassemblies.com, Internet: www.eamcableassemblies.com. atlantecrf.com.
S6 focus March/2010
Focus
PASSIVE COMPONENTS
?
TIA Explores Design Structures For Small Wind Turbines
What Telecommunications is amon ng the Turbine Permitting Guideline - Structural Committee liaison
New industries looking at altern native--
energy sources and the reduction
uction
to consider the joint development of a technical standard
on small-wind-turbine structural design. Members of TIA
of carbon emissions. On November
ember TR-14.7, which maintains the industry standard for the struc-
11, 2009, the Telecommunications
ations tural design of steel antenna towers and supporting structures,
Industry
d Association (TIA; http://tiaonline.org) agreed
A ed to unanimously agreed to form a technical task group to investi-
investigate design
d structures for small wind turbines with
th the gate structural design issues for small wind turbines. The task
intent to participate in the development of a new standardd d group will focus on researching and formulating recommenda-
b d on its work in developing and maintaining the stan-
based tions to address the technical aspects of the design and main-
dard for steel an
ntenna towers. At a meeting in South hpointe, tenance of structures supporting small wind generators based
PA, the TIA TR R-14 Engineering Committee on Po oint-to- upon the approaches outlined in the existing communications
Point Communiccations, TR-14.7 Subcommittee on Strructural tower standard, TIA-222-G. Ultimately, the TIA wishes to par-
Standards for Steeel Antenna Towers, was approached d by the ticipate in the offering of a solution that satisfies the technical
American Wind Energy Association (AWEA) US/IEC C Large needs of the small wind power industry.
Hybrid Coupler Covers 1.0 To 4.2 GHz Compact Monopole And Dipole
The model IPP-7015 is a 3-dB, 90-deg. surface-mount hybrid Antennas Reach 916 MHz
coupler that operates from 1.0 to 4.2 GHz. This coupler combines The HW series of half-wave,
two signals of up to 80 W CW total output power. The device is center-fed dipole and quar-
produced in a compact surface-mount (SMD) package measuring ter-wave monopole anten-
1.80 x 0.39 x 0.17 in. nas is now available with
It exhibits less than standard SMA connector
0.50 dB insertion terminations. These anten-
loss with amplitude nas feature internal counter-
balance of better than poises. They are available in
±0.60 dB. The coupler provides phase standard center frequencies
balance of better than ±5 deg., VSWR of less than 1.30:1, of 315, 418, 433, 868, and
and isolation of greater than 18 dB. It operates from −55° to 916 MHz. The 868- and 916-MHz versions are half-wave
+85°C. Although standard versions come in a tin/lead finish, center-fed dipoles while the 315-, 418-, and 433-MHz types
it also is available in RoHS-compliant versions with a matte-tin are all quarter-wave monopoles. They promise to deliver an
finish (model IPP-7015RT) as well as a nickel-gold finish (model omni-directional radiation pattern with low VSWR. The rugged
IPP7015RG). Delivery is stock to four weeks; devices are available antennas attach using an FCC-compliant RP-SMA or standard
on tape-and-reel for use with automatic insertion equipment. SMA connector. P&A: $4.98 each in volume quantities.
Innovative Power Products, Inc., 1170 Lincoln Ave., Unit 7, Antenna Factor, 159 Ort Ln., Merlin, OR 97532; (800) 489-
Holbrook, NY 11741; (631) 563-0088, e-mail: sales@innovative- 1634, FAX: (541) 471-6251, e-mail: info@antennafactor.com,
pp.com, Internet: www.innovativepp.com. Internet: www.antennafactor.com.
Passives-Model Library Offers Multiple-Simulator Licensing

The latest version (6.1) of the Modelithics (www.modelithics. multi-simulator license opttion would allow them to, for exam-
com)) CLR model library is now available for all currently sup- ple, use the same single liceense to run models on either Agilent
ported simulators. This collection includes substrate and part- ADS, Agilent Genesys, or AWR Microwave Office. Users with
value scalable capacitor, resistor, and inductor families from floating licenses can upgraade to the multi-simulator licensing
vendors like Johanson Technology, ATC, Murata, Coilcraft, option to share the same liccense pool flexibly between different
Kemet, Panasonic, Samsung, TDK, and Darfon. Many of the simulators. Here, the numb ber of simultaneous users is limited
models in this release have been developed through partner- only by the total number of floating licenses “checked out,”
ships with the component vendors themselves. With Version which can be used on anyy combination of circuit simulators.
6.1, users who have access to more than one circuit simulator The CLR Version 6.1 upgraade will be forwarded free of charge
can now take advantage of a multi-simulator license option. to Modelithics CLR Libraryy or Library Complete owners cur-
For users with node-locked or dongle licenses, an upgrade to a rently under a Modelithics Platinum Maintenance contract.

s S7
Focus
PASSIVE COMPONENTS
?
Four-Way Power Divider
What Spans 6 To 18 GHz
New To suit a broad array of commercial and military applications,
the model 3326B-4 four-way power divider operates from 6
to 18 GHz. This power divider exhibits insertion loss of less
than 2 dB with isolation of at least 18 dB and input and output
VSWR of 1.50:1 or less. It maintains amplitude balance to 0.5 dB or less while phase
balance is maintained to at least 7 deg. The power divider can handle average RF
input power of 30 W into a VSWR of 1.20:1 or less and a maximum of 10 W into a
2.0:1 VSWR. The Model 3326B-4 measures 4.3 x 1.4 x 0.5 in. and has Type-N female
connectors. The divider’s electrical performance, connector type, and configuration
can be modified to meet the needs of specific requirements.
L-3 Communications Corp., Narda Microwave-East, 435 Moreland Rd., Hauppauge,
NY 11788; (631) 231-1700, FAX: (631) 231-1711, e-mail: nardaeast@L-3com.com,
Internet: www.nardamicrowave.com/east.
Six-Way Power Divider Seals Out Moisture

The DMS-648-2ES six-way pow-
er-divider series covers 6 to 20
GHz with 20 dB isolation. The
airborne, moisture-sealed compo-
nents exhibit 8.2 dB insertion loss
and an input/output return loss of
17.7 dB. The maximum amplitude
and phase balances are 1.2 and
10 deg., respectively. The power
dividers boast input and output
VSWR to 2.0:1 with input power
ranging to 30 W. This series relies
on a cascaded Wilkinson design
approach, which is realized with microstrip circuit construction. The units are
designed to survive MIL-E-5400 environments. The power dividers operate from
−55°
55 to +85°C.
85 C. Their casing is finished in golden iridite with opttional paint avail-
able. They measure 3.5 x 2.1 x 0.38 in. and weigh less than 5 oz. The dividers come
standard with SMA female connectors meeting MIL-C-39012 requirements.
Technical Research and Manufacturing, Inc., 280 South River R Rd., Bedford, NH
03110; (603) 627-6000, FAX: (603) 627-6025, e-mail: sales@techniicalresearch.com,
Internet: www.technicalresearch.com.
Broadband Resistive Coupler Covers DC To 15 GHz

The IMK resistive-coupler series pler operates from −55° to +150°C. It
covers DC to 15 GHz. Thanks to exhibits VSWR of 1.20:1, depending
their thick-film-on-alumina con- on implementation. Attachment is
struction, the couplers promise accomplished with either solder or
insertion-loss performance com- epoxy.
parable to frequency-sensitive cou- International Manufacturing
plers. A 0.120-x-0.120-in. device, for Services, Inc., 50 Schoolhouse Ln.,
example, exhibits insertion loss of 1 Portsmouth, RI 02871; (401) 683-
dB or less. It is available with a cou- 9700, FAX: (401) 683-5571, e-mail:
pling range from 6 to 30 dB and is sales@ims-resistors.com, Internet:
rated at 1 W input power. The cou- www.ims-resistors.com.
S8 focus March/2010
DUALMODE BPFS
DesignFeature
Continued from p. 62
Fig. 4(c) shows measured results closer to the simulations over 70 dB. Suppression at the second-order harmonic fre-
than the filter from Fig. 4(b). Despite the discrepancies, the quency (6.6 GHz) is better than 40 dB. The measured frac-
two modified filters exhibit a wide stopband with rejection tional bandwidth and passband insertion loss are 8.48 per-
better than 20 dB to 8.5 GHz and sharp frequency notch cent and 1.45 dB for the conventional filter, and 13 percent
and 0.92 dB for the modified filters, respectively. Insertion
0 loss includes a pair of SMA connectors.
Offset = 0.4 mm
–10
Offset = 0.5 mm REFERENCES
Offset = 0.6 mm 1. Wolff, “Microstrip bandpass filter using degenerate modes of a microstrip ring resona-
–20 tor,” Electronics Letters, Vol. 8, No. 12, June 1972, pp. 302-303.
S21—dB
2. J. S. Hong and M. J. Lancaster, “Bandpass characteristics of new dual-mode microstrip

–30 square loop resonators,” Electronics Letters, Vol. 31, No. 11, May 1995, pp. 891-892.
3. A. Görür, “Description of Coupling Between Degenerate Modes of a Dual-Mode
Microstrip Loop Resonator Using a Novel Perturbation Arrangement and Its Dual-Mode
–40 Bandpass Filter Applications,” IEEE Transactions on Microwave Theory & Techniques, Vol.
52, No. 2, February 2004, pp. 671-677.
–50 4. L. Zhu and K.Wu, “A joint field/circuit model of line-to-ring coupling structures and
its application to the design of microstrip dual-mode filters and ring resonator applica-
tions,” IEEE Transactions on Microwave Theory & Techniques, Vol. 47, No. 10, October 1999,
–60 pp. 1938-1948.
5. L. H. Hsieh and K. Chang, “Equivalent Lumped Elements G, L, C, and Unloaded Q’s of
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 Closed- and Open-Loop Ring Resonators,” IEEE Transactions on Microwave Theory & Tech-
Frequency—GHz niques, Vol. 50, No. 2, February 2002, pp. 453-460.
6. A. Görür, “Realization of a Dual-Mode Bandpass Filter Exhibiting Either a Chebyshev or
an Elliptic Characteristic by Changing Perturbation’s Size,” IEEE Microwave and Wireless
8. Simulated frequency responses of DMF with modified coupling Component Letters, Vol. 14, No. 3, March 2004, pp. 118-120.
7. J. Y. Chen, T. Y. Yum, J. L. Li, and Q. Xue, “Dual-Mode Dual-Band Bandpass Filter Using
structure shown in Fig. 4(c) change with offset. Stacked-Loop Structure,” IEEE Microwave and Wireless Component Letters, Vol. 16, No. 9,
September 2006, pp. 502-504.
8. T. H. Huang, H. J. Chen, C. S. Chang, L. S. Chen, Y. H. Wang, and M. P. Houng, “A Novel
0 Compact Ring Dual-Mode Filter With Adjustable Second-Passband for Dual-Band Appli-
cations ,” IEEE Microwave and Wireless Comp. Lett., Vol. 16, No. 6, June 2006, pp. 360-362.
–10 9. S. W. Fok, P. Cheong, K. W. Tam, and R. P. Martins, “A Novel Microstrip Square-Loop
Dual-Mode Bandpass Filter With Simultaneous Size Reduction and Spurious Response
–20 Suppression,” IEEE Transactions on Microwave Theory & Techniques, Vol. 54, No. 5, May
S21 and S11—dB
2006, pp. 2033-2041.

10. A. Görür, “A novel dual-mode bandpass filter with wide stopband using the proper-
–30 ties of microstrip open-loop resonator,” IEEE Microwave and Wireless Component Letters,
Vol. 12, No. 10, October 2002, pp. 386-388.
–40 11. U. Karacaoglu, D. Sanchez-Hernandez, I. D. Robertson, and M. Guglielmi, “Harmonic
suppression in microstrip dual-mode ring-resonator bandpass filter,” in IEEE MTT-S Inter-
national Symposium Digest, San Francisco, CA, 1996, Vol. 3, pp. 1635-1638.
–50 CON
12. S. Chotjit, S. Chaimool, and P. Akkaraeakthalin, “A Miniaturized Dual-mode Bandpass
MOD1 Filter using Triangular Loop Resonator with Wide Stopband by U-Shaped Defected
–60 Ground Structure (DGS),” digest of the Asia-Pacific Microwave Conference 2007, Vol. 3,
MOD2 December 2007, pp. 1-4.
13. W. Kang, W. Hong, and J. Y. Zhou, “Dual-mode bandpass filter using defected ground
–70 structures for coupling enhancement and harmonic suppression,” digest of the Internation-
1.5 2.0 2.5 3.0 3.5 4.0 4.5 5.0 5.5 al Conference on Microwave and Millimeter Wave Technology, April 2008, pp. 372-374.
Frequency—GHz 14. M. H. Weng and W. Wu, “Stopband improvement of a dual-mode ring bandpass filter
using DGS,” Microwave and Opt. Technol. Lett., Vol. 44, No. 3, February 2005, pp. 247-249.
15. W. H. Tu and K. Chang, “Compact Microstrip Bandstop Filter Using Open Stub and
9. Measured passband responses of DMFs with conventional coupling Spurline,” IEEE Microwave and Wireless Comp. Lett., Vol. 15 No. 4, April 2005, pp. 268-270.
structure (CON), modified coupling structure shown in Fig. 4(b) 16. J. M. Carroll and K. Chang, “Microstrip mode suppression ring resonator,” Electronics
Letters, Vol. 30, No. 22, October 1994, pp. 1861-1862.
(MOD1), and modified coupling structure shown in Fig. 4(c) (MOD2) 17. X. D. Huang and C. H. Cheng, “A Novel Microstrip Dual-Mode Bandpass Filter With
Harmonic Suppression,” IEEE Microwave and Wireless Component Letters, Vol. 16, No. 7,
July 2006, pp. 404-406.
0 18. K. K. M. Cheng, “Design of dual-mode ring resonators with transmission zeros,” Elec-
tronics Letters, Vol. 33, No. 16, July 1997, pp. 1392-1393.
–10 19. J.-T.Kuo, S.-P. Chen, and M. Jiang, “Parallel-coupled microstrip filters with over-
coupled end stages for suppression of spurious responses,” IEEE Microwave and Wireless
Component Letters, Vol. 13, No. 10, October 2003, pp. 440-442.
–20 20. J.-T. Kuo, W.-H. Hsu, and W.-T. Huang, “Parallel coupled microstrip filters with sup-
pression of harmonic response,” IEEE Microwave and Wireless Component Letters, Vol. 12,
S21—dB
–30 No. 10, October 2002, pp. 383-385.

21. J. Y. Park and J. C. Lee, “A new enhanced coupling structure of microstrip ring resona-
–40 tor with two coupled lines and a slit,” in IEEE MTT-S International Microwave Symposium
Digest, 1998, pp. 805-808.
22. L. H. Hsieh and K. Chang, “Dual-mode quasi-elliptic-function bandpass filters using
–50 CON ring resonators with enhanced-coupling tuning stubs,” IEEE Transactions on Microwave
Theory & Techniques, Vol. 50, No. 5, May 2002, pp. 1340-1345.
–60 MOD1 23. L. H. Hsieh and K. Chang, “Compact, low insertion-loss, sharp-rejection, and wide-
MOD2 band microstrip bandpass filters,” IEEE Transactions on Microwave Theory & Techniques,
–70 Vol. 51, No. 4, April 2003, pp. 1241-1246.
24. L. H. Hsieh and K. Chang, “Compact dual-mode elliptic-function bandpass filter using
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 a single ring resonator with one coupling gap,” Electronics Letters, Vol. 36, No. 19, Sep-
tember 2000, pp. 1626-1627.
25. L. H. Hsieh and K. Chang, “Dual-mode elliptic-function bandpass filter using one
single patch resonator without coupling gaps,” Electronics Letters, Vol. 36, No. 24, Novem-
10. Measured wideband responses of DMFs with conventional cou- ber 2000, pp. 2022-2023.
26. A. Griol, D. Mira, J. Marti, and J. L. Corral, “Microstrip side-coupled ring bandpass filters
pling structure (CON), modified coupling structure shown in Fig. 4(b) with mode coupling control for harmonic suppression,” Electronics Letters, Vol. 40, No. 15,
July 2004, pp. 943-945.
(MOD1), and modified coupling structure shown in Fig. 4(c) (MOD2)
Microwaves & RF ■ MARCH 2010 65

S A M P L E D P L L S , PA R T 3
DesignFeature
Analyze Phase Noise

In A Sampled PLL
The final installment of this three-part series on phase noise in sampled
PLLs examines the effects of noise sources, including the tunable and
reference oscillators, on overall synthesizer performance.
PETER BEESON 19. The reference –60

VCTCXO phase-noise model
RF Consultant –70
oscillator phase
LA Techniques Ltd., The Works, Station Road, Claygate KT10 9DH, United Kingdom –80
10log[|LTCXO(jω)|]
noise may be mod- –90
+44 1372 466040, –100
FAX: +44 1372 466688, e-mail: peter.beeson@latechniques.com, eled by defining the –110
–120
Internet: www.latechniques.com noise at three spot
–130
points and interpo- –140
–150
lating between those –160
S
1 10 100 1 x 103 1 x 104 1 x 105
ome have suggested that PLL noise degrades with points ω/2π
frequency because the charge pumps are powered
on for longer periods compared to the sampling With this in mind, take the phase noise at the phase
period and therefore allow more noise to be detector due to the charge pumps, dividers, and other com-
transferred to the loop filter. In fact, the noise fol- ponent, referenced to a 1-Hz bandwidth, to be equal to
lows exactly what would be expected from FM Lpd_1Hz = -207 dBc/Hz, with Lpd = 10log(fs) + Lpd_1Hz and,
theory and sampling theory. From FM theory, the noise is thus, Lpd = -163.021 dBc.
expected to increase by 6 dB for every doubling of frequen- The loop acts on this noise to make a contribution to
cy (20logffs). However, from sampling theory, the noise the overall sampled PLL noise as described by Eq. 58:
power per Hz would be expected to decrease by 3 dB for L pd
every doubling of the sampling frequency (-10logffs) since
Lphd (s , fs ) := 10 ⋅ ( Tr' (s , fs ) )
10 2 (58)
the noise power is now spread over twice the bandwidth.
The net result is an increase in the phase noise by 3 dB for
every doubling of the sampling frequency (10 logffs). The plot in Fig. 18 below shows the difference between
Sampled and continuous phase noise the output noise due to the phase detector for a continuous
18. This plot shows –61
–71
system and for a sampled system. There is a significant dif-
the difference –81 ference between the two. The apparent bandwidth for the
–91
between the output –101 sampled system is higher, and the noise at higher frequency
10log[Lphd(jω,ffs)]
noise due to the –111
10log[Lphdc1(jω)] –121 offsets is 3 to 4 dB higher except at multiples of the sam-
phase detector for a –131 pling frequency where the contribution falls to zero.
–141
continuous system –151 In any PLL frequency synthesizer, the reference oscilla-
–161
and for a sampled 100 1 x 103 1 x 104 1 x 105 tor may also contribute to the overall phase noise close to
ω/2π
system. the carrier. The SSB phase noise of the reference oscillator
appears at the output of the synthesizer
multiplied by the overall division ratio
L x1 L x3 L x0
between the reference frequency and the
− 1 − 3
(59) output frequency.
⋅ fx1 ⋅ ⎛⎜
s ⎞
⋅ fx3 ⋅ ⎛⎜
10 10 3 s ⎞ 10
Ltcxo ( s ) 10 ⎟ + 10 ⎟ + 10
⎝ 2⋅ π ⎠ ⎝ 2⋅ π ⎠ Typically, for the type of VCTCXOs
used as a reference source in a PLL syn-

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IF/RF MICROWAVE COMPONENTS 359 rev N
DesignFeature
Phase noise due to all sources

0
Output phase noise due to the VCTCXO –10
10log[L(jω, fs)] –20
–50
–60 –30
–70 10log[Losctot(jω, fs)] –40
–50
–80 –60
10log[Lphd(jω)]
–90 –70
–100 –80
10log[|Lref(jω, fs)|] 10log[Lref(jω, fs)] –90
–110 –100
10log[|Lr(jω)|] –120 10log[Lmod(jω)] –110
–130 –120
–130
–140 10log[Loscn(jω, fs)] –140
–150 –150
–160 –160
–170 –170
–180
10 100 1 x 103 1 x 104 1 x 105
ω/2π
1 10 100 1 x 103 1 x 104
ω/2π
21. This plot shows the overall predicted 22. This plot shows the measured phase noise
20. This plot shows the output phase noise noise for the PLL and the contributions from of the test PLL as a comparison to predicted
due to the VCTCXO reference oscillator. relevant phase-noise sources. values.
thesizer, the phase noise is flat from large frequency offsets plot the effect the loop has on that phase-noise contribu-
to about 100 kHz from the carrier, then rises at a rate of tion to the overall PLL synthesizer. Usually, the reference
about 10 dB/decade to about 400 Hz from the carrier, then noise is well below the contribution due to the phase detec-
rises at a rate of about 30 dB/decade. The reference oscil- tor or dividers except at low offset frequencies (typically
lator phase noise may be modeled by defining the noise at below a few hundred Hz), as shown in Eqs. 60 and 61:
three spot points and interpolating between those points 1 ⎞
2
(Fig. 19). For this analysis, points are chosen to be 1 MHz, Lr ( s ) Ltcxo ( s ) ⋅ ⎛⎜ ⎟ ⋅ ( Tr ( s ) )2 (60)
10 kHz, and 10 Hz, with (units in dBc and Hz, respec- ⎝ Rp ⎠
2
tively) Lx0 = -155; fx0 = 1 x 106; Lx1 = -148; fx1 = 10 x 103; 1 ⎞
Lref (s , fs ) := Ltcxo ( s ) ⋅ ⎛⎜ ⎟ ⋅ ( Tr' (s , fs ) )
2
(61)
Lx3 = -90; and fx3 = 10. ⎝ Rp ⎠
Then, the reference oscillator phase noise can be mod-
eled by using Eq. 59: With models developed for the various noise sources in
(See equation 59) a sampled PLL, the multiple sources can be combined to
create an overall noise model for the synthesizer. Each of
Figure 20 shows the output phase noise due to the these sources is modified by the PLL according to the equa-
VCTCXO reference oscillator. Once the reference os- tions below. For example, the noise generated by modula-
cillator’s phase noise has been modeled, it is possible to tion of the VCO by thermal noise in the loop filter is shown
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DesignFeature

–50
Phase noise due to all sources –60
10log[L(jω, fs)]
–60 –70
10log[L(jω, fs)] –70 10log[Losctot(jω, fs)]
–80
–80
10log[Losctot(jω, fs)] –90 10log[Lphd(jω)] –90
–100
10log[Lphd(jω)] –100 10log[Lref(jω, fs)]
–110
–110 10log[Lmod(jω)] –120
10log[Lref(jω, fs)]
–120
–130
10log[Lmod(jω)] –130 10log[Loscn(jω, fs)]
–140
–140 –150
10log[Loscn(jω, fs)]
–150 1 x 102 1 x 103 1 x 104 1 x 105
–160 ω/2π
1 x 103 1 x 104 2 x 104 3 x 104 4 x 104 5 x 104 6 x 104
ω/2π
24. This plot shows the effect of an increase in 25. The upper trace shows the measured
VCO noise on the overall performance of the effect of a relatively noisy oscillator compared
here on a linear scale. PLL synthesizer. to the normal performance of the lower trace.
in Eq. 62: 2 the loop is represented by Eq. 65:

⎛ Kω vco ⎞ Re( Z ( s ) ) 2
Lmod ( s ) := ⎜ ⎟ ⋅ 8⋅ k ⋅ T ⋅ 1 ⎞
Lref (s , fs ) := Ltcxo ( s ) ⋅ ⎛⎜ ⎟ ⋅ ( Tr' (s , fs ) )
2
⎝ 2⋅ π ⎠ ⎯ 2
(62) (65)
s s ⋅ ⎛⎜ 2⋅
1 ⎞
⎟ ⎝ Rp ⎠
⎝ 2⋅ π ⎠ The combined output phase noise due to all the sources
modified by the loop is shown in Eq. 66:
The noise due to the phase detector modified by the
L(s , fs ) := Lphd (s , fs ) + Losctot (s , fs ) + Lref (s , fs ) (66)
loop response is given in Eq. 63:
L pd
Figure 21 shows the overall predicted noise for the PLL
and the contributions from some of the relevant phase-
Lphd (s , fs ) := 10 ( Tr' (s , fs ) noise sources. Figure 22 shows the measured phase noise
10 2
⋅ (63)
of the test PLL. Note that the close-in phase noise is higher
The noise of the free-running VCO as modified by the than predicted by the simulation above. This is because the
loop is represented by Eq. 64: noise floor of the NTS1000A test system has been reached.
Losctot (s , fs ) := Losceff2 (s , fs ) + Losceff1 ( s ) (64) The instrument’s specification sheet lists its noise floor as
-40 dBc/Hz offset 10 Hz from the carrier and -74 dBc/Hz
The noise from the reference oscillator as modified by offset 100 Hz from the carrier.
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DesignFeature
–50
10log[L(jω, fs)] –60 is above the level of the other noise
–70
10log[Losctot(jω, fs)]
–80 sources, the effects of sampling in the
10log[Lphd(jω)] –90 loop are evident at the harmonics of
–100
10log[Lref(jω, fs)]
–110 the sampling frequency.
10log[Lmod(jω)] –120
In the plot of Fig. 25, the upper
–130
10log[Loscn(jω, fs)]
–140 trace shows the measured effect of
–150
1 x 102 1 x 103 1 x 104 1 x 105
a relatively noisy oscillator. This is
ω/2π achieved by modulating the VCO
26. This plot shows the effect of increasing with broadband noise to produce the
the phase detector noise floor by 10 dB. 27. These plots compare normal reference effect of a noisy oscillator. The lower
phase noise with the effects of modulating trace shows the normal performance
Figure 23 shows the same informa- the reference VCTCXO with broadband noise. of the PLL.
tion plotted on a linear scale similar To continue the analysis, the phase-
to what it might look like on a spec- will be left unchanged but raise the detector/divider noise can be made
trum analyzer. This also allows closer level of the 20 dB/decade region will significantly higher than the oscillator
inspection of the noise in the nulls be raised by 20 dB, with the resulting noise, at -153 dBc/Hz, to study the ef-
that occur at the sampling frequency parameters (in units in dBc and Hz, fect of the change. Figure 26 shows the
and its harmonics. In this analysis, it respectively) L0 = -155; f0 = 3 x 106; effect of increasing the phase detector
is also possible to make the oscillator L2 = -108; fx1 = 100 x 103; L3 = -70; noise floor by 10 dB, in a plot of phase
noise higher than the reference/phase- and f3 = 1x 103. noise due to all sources. The same ef-
detector/divider noise to see the ef- The plot in Fig. 24 shows the effect fect would be produced by a noisy
fects. In this new example, the far-out of the increase in oscillator noise. reference divider or a noisy feedback
phase noise and close-in phase noise Even though the oscillator noise divider. (In each case, the noise spec-
trum is assumed to be flat.)
The upper trace in Fig. 27 shows the
measured phase noise when reference
SAW MODULES phase noise is raised by 10 dB by mod-

ulating the reference VCTCXO with
pre-emphasized broadband noise (to
FOR DEFENSE AND SPACE produce flat phase noise sidebands on
the reference signal). The lower trace
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shows normal PLL performance.
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MODULES with switched filters or
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manufacturers such as ADIsimPLL
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DIGITAL waveform generation and demodulation com) and EasyPLL from National
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Although they may take discrete time
effects into account for the prediction
of transient responses, they only use
RADAR Wide band matched filters with linear
or non-linear frequency or bi-phase modulation,
a linear approximation for the loop
plus wide band digital waveform generators response and phase noise predictions.
EW Channelized filter banks, delay lines, For many applications, this simplifi-
real-time spectrum analysis
cation may be sufficient for a given
COM Low shape factor low loss RF & IF
channel filters design. But with the trend toward
SPACE High reliability SAW components and faster-settling-time PLLs where the
modules for satellite use loop bandwidth must be a significant
ISO 9001 fraction of the sampling frequency,
something closer to the true response
PHONON CORPORATION is required and the analysis presented
POB 549, 90 Wolcott Road, Simsbury, CT 06070
www.phonon.com (860) 651-0211 in this multi-part article can provide a
very close estimation of expected per-
formance in sampled PLLs.

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22

E F F E C T S O F S C AT T E R E R S , PA R T 1
DesignFeature
Forecast Rain Effects

On Microwave Links
This analysis of the influence of a scatterer, such as rainfall,
on the performance of a satellite communications system or other
microwave link, includes near- and far-field antenna effects.
JOHN HOWARD
President
ET Industries, 50 Intervale Road, Boonton, NJ 07005; S5
(973) 394-1719, FAX: (973) 394-1710, e-mail: sales@
etiworld.com, Internet: www.etiworld.com.
S4
S3 S4
P
x
ropagation of electromag-
netic (EM) waves through z
the air is difficult to pre- S2
y
dict, due to atmospheric
effects. Raindrops, for S1 S4
S3 S4
example, can act as scat-
terers that attenuate and affect the Antenna 1 Antenna 2
polarization of the propagating EM
waves. Scattering theory has treated
effects on the far-field regions of re-
ceive and transmit antennas in com-
munications links, but not near-field 1. A typical microwave communications link can be portrayed by two antennas that can both
effects. In this first of a two-part ar- transmit and receive.
ticle, this analysis examines the near-
field effects of distributed scatterers, ing orthogonal polarization schemes ther study repeated and extended the
such as rainfall and what influence to handle higher data rates.5 Early earlier work on radar echoes compar-
they can have on the EM propagation research on the atmospheric effects6 ing predictions with measurements
of a communications system, such as on radar echoes found that the main and finding a lack of close agreement,
attenuation and depolarization. atmospheric cause of microwave at- with predictions falling short of mea-
In some communications plat- tenuation is rainfall. Spherical rain- sured attenuation values.8 The lack of
forms, such as microwave satellite drops were assumed in the study. agreement was felt to be due possibly
communications systems, the near Another study examined EM wave to omission of the effects of multiple
field may contain a significant por- propagation in a medium containing scatterers along the transmission path
tion of the rain path for the commu- independent particles that scatter and in the predictions, as well as the pos-
nications link. At frequencies of 10 absorb the incident energy.7 The ef- sibility that the rain structure was
GHz and abovel,2, precipitation can fects of the particles were expressed more complex than initially assumed
cause attenuation and depolarization in terms of an effective complex in- and was not adequately represented
of the transmitted EM radiation.3,4 dex of refraction that predicts both by theory. Additional studies showed
Both effects can limit system perfor- attenuation and phase shifts caused that even with no variations in rain-
mance, especially for systems employ- by the particles. Following this, a fur- fall rate or rain drop size, theory

DesignFeature
and measurements failed to agree.9 A amplitude. But work in 197811 found In a terrestrial microwave link, the
study on the near-field effects of rain flaws in the antenna correction fac- near-field regions of both antennas
on antennas revealed that modifica- tors developed previously and noted may only be a small part of the link’s
tions to earlier theory were needed.10 the importance of understanding the total path. But in satellite communica-
Measurements of rainfall in the near effects of rainfall in the near field of tions systems, the near-field region of
field of antennas showed significant an antenna, especially for microwave a large ground-station antenna could
polarization effects for both phase and satellite communications systems. represent a significant fraction of the
rain path. For that reason, it is impor-
tant to know the effects of scatterers,
SATCOM & Cellular/PCS

such as rain, on the near-field regions
of antennas in a microwave com-
munications system. Analysis will be
RF Test Equipment performed on an example link in four
parts: in the absence of precipitation,
with the introduction of a raindrop,
Satellite Link Emulator in a uniform distribution of rain-
RF link emulation for payload or VSAT ter- drops, and for the attenuation and
minal development. Doppler, delay, path loss, phase shifts due to a thick precipita-
phase shift and fading may be independently tion layer. For EM propagation in the
programmed . Dynamic changing delay offers absence of precipitation, consider a
fully phase continuous operation. Up to four case where two aperture antennas are
independent channels.
pointed at each other (Fig. 1).
For the antennas in Fig. 1, EM field
Low cost CW Synthesizer E1H1 is the field from the transmit-
High performance (10MHz to 4 GHz) CW ter (antenna 1) and field E2H2 is the
synthesizer with downloadable date file to field of the receiver (antenna 2) when
control power and frequency for sweep test- it acts as a transmitter. To understand
ing. Ethernet, GPIB and RS 232 control the behavior of the fields, consider a
volume, V, formed by the sides of the
antenna, S1S2, S3, S4, and S5. Within
AWGN Carrier/Noise Generators this volume there are no impressed
Complete line of frequency tunable broad-
currents and both fields (ElHl and
band Additive While Gaussian Noise
(AWGN) generators with built-in power
E2H2) satisfy Maxwell’s equations in
measurement. Eb/No ratio accuracy of free space, i.e.,
0.1dB over full frequency range
(1)
Equation 2 can be used in Eq. 1 to
solve for Eq. 2 in Eq. A. Use of Gauss’
theorem gives Eq. 3, where n^ is the
outward normal on the respective
surfaces. Equation 3 is the Lorentzian
form of the Reciprocity Theorem for
free space.
The next step in this analysis is to
32A Spru
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01) 677-0008 Fax (201) 677-9444 face S1 is the aperture plane of antenna
1. For the case of this analysis, these
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the transmit/receive wavelength. As-
suming matched polarizations, the

DesignFeature
fields over Surface S1 can be described

by
(2)
(A) (B)
For this surface, n^ = k^, with Eq. 4 be-

ing true.
(3) Surface S2 is located in the trans-
mission line connected to antenna 2.
For simplicity, the line is assumed to
(4) be matched and with only a normal
transmission mode. As a result, on S2
(6)
,
(D)
(5)
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DesignFeature
where Bi is the complex amplitude of

the inward traveling wave resulting S5
when antenna 1 transmits; A is the
complex amplitude of the outward S3 S6
traveling wave when antenna 2 is S4 S4
S3
transmitting; Z0 is the transmission x
line wave impedance; u^ is a unit vector 0 z
z
normal to k^; and f(x,y) is the trans- S7
mission-line-mode distribution func- y S2
tion. For this surface, n^ = k^, and the S3 S4
S3 S4
conditions shown in Eqs. C and 6.
The integral over surfaces S3 and S4 Antenna 1 Antenna 2
vanishes. To show this, note that E2
and E2 are parallel with the normal n ^
everywhere over S3 and S4, which are

assumed to be perfectly conducting
surfaces. As a result, E1 = nÊ and E
1 2
^
= nE2 can be written over S3 and S4 as 2. The microwave communications link of Fig. 1 is now influenced by the presence of a scatterer
Eq. D and 7. Surface S5 can be treated with surface S6.
as a large sphere tending to infinity,
so that: with the conditions shown in Eq. E, so addition of an arbitrarily shaped rain-
that Eq. 8 is true. Using Eqs. 4, 6, 7, drop (scatterer). Let E3H3 be the field
^ × H (μ ε )0.5
E1 = n and 8 results in Eqs. F and 9. due to the transmitter (antenna 1) in
1 0 0
^ × H (μ ε )0.5
E2 = n Figure 2 is similar to Fig. 1, with the the presence of precipitation and E2H2
2 0 0
be the field of the receiver (antenna 2)
when it acts as a transmitter in free
space. Note that E2H2 is the same as
described previously, although E3H3
is not the same as E1H1.
Let ES1HSS1 represent the scat-
tered field in free space due to E3H3
(C)
incident on the raindrop. Both ES1HS1
and E2H2 satisfy Maxwell’s free-space
equations in the volume V bounded
(7) by the surfaces S2, 3…S7. As a result,
following the form of the analysis al-
ready performed for EM wave propa-
gation in the absence of any precipita-
tion, Eq. 10 results, where n^ is the
outward normal on the respective
surfaces.
(E) Integration over the surfaces S3,
S4, and S5 yields zero, as shown in
Eq. 11. For surface S2, Eq. 12 holds,
(8)
where A, Z0, and f(x,y) are the same
as defined previously and Bs is the
complex amplitude of the inward
(F) traveling wave at S2 due to the scat-
tered field EsS1Hs1, which itself is due
to E3H3.
(9) Surface S7 can be analyzed by con-
sidering that both Es1Hs1 and E3H3
give rise to traveling waves in the same

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DesignFeature
direction across S7. This can be used

to show the conditions in Eq. 13.
(10) Surface S6 is the surface of the rain-
drop, with 0 representing a point any-
where within the scatterer (Fig. 2). By
incorporating the scatterer, fields
(11) E3H3 and E2H2 can be written as
(12)
(14
4)
(13) where E30 is the complex amplitude of

E3 at point 0 and E20 is the complex
amplitude of E2 at point 0.
Equation 14 assumes that both E3
(17) and E2 are linearly polarized in the
same direction since the two antennas
are illuminating a narrow common
volume. Over the region occupied by
(18) the raindrop, E3 H3 and E2 H2 can be
expressed as plane waves traveling in
opposite directions. Taking point 0 as

DesignFeature
the origin of the z’ axis (Fig. 2), (19) be used to find the EM wave detected
picked up by the receiving antenna
where parameter S(0) is the forward from any raindrop located within this
scattering complex scalar amplitude volume, in the form of Eq. 24.
of a scatterer. If the elemental volume dv con-
(15) Using Eqs. 17, 18, and 19 and remem- tains similar-sized raindrops that are
bering that E*30 = î E*30, results in Eq. uniformly distributed in dv and if N is
It can now be seen that 20. Using Eqs. 11, 12, 13, and 20 in the number of raindrops per unit vol-
Eq. 10 yields Eq. G, where the condi- ume, then by applying single scatter-
tions in Eq. 21 apply. ing theory it follows from Eq. 24 that
From Eq. 15, in the region occu- the EM wave detected by the receiv-
(16) pied by the raindrop, Eq. 22 applies, ing antenna due to scattered radiation
where E3 and E2 are the complex sca- from the raindrops in dv is shown in
where * denotes the complex conju- lar amplitudes of vectors E3 and E2, Eq. 25.
gate. Using Eq. 16 yields Eq. 17. respectively. Over this region, Next month, this two-part article
The scattered field ES1HSS1 is due series on the effects of EM scatterers
to E3H3 incident on the raindrop. The E30 E20 = E3E2 (23) will conclude with further develop-
integral on the right-hand side of Eq. ment of the scatterer model that in-
17 is related to the forward scatter- Equation 23 shows that the prod- cludes a precipitation region with a
ing complex vector amplitude F(0) uct E3E2 can be assumed constant large number of raindrops. The study
of a scatterer12 according to Eq. 18. over the region occupied by the rain- will show that a sufficient number of
For any scatterer, the forward scatter- drop. It can also be assumed that E3E2 raindrops can have measurable near-
ing complex vector amplitude can be is constant over an elemental volume and far-field EM effects, causing both
shown in scalar form as Eq. 19: dv in space. Equations 23 and 21 can attenuation and phase shifts.
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IMAGERE JEC T MIXER
DesignFeature
Image-Reject Mixer Arms

Direct-Conversion Receivers
With biasing techniques such as those used for power
amplifiers, an image-reject mixer fabricated with a standard
CMOS process can deliver improved linearity.
as UMTS, it is possible to achieve The image reject direct-conversion

NANDI LOGAN outstanding linearity even in the pres- method has the added advantage of
RFIC Design Consultant
ence of large blocking (interference) requiring fewer filtering components.
J. M. NORAS signals, and even in a UMTS system, However, these advantages are
Design Engineer
J. G. GARDINER where the transmit signal is often somehow mitigated by the added
Design Engineer the largest blocking signal for the re- problems of a receiver more prone
Analog RF IC Design ceiver. The mixer is designed for bias to flicker (1/f) noise, the challenge
Hubner Strasse 5, Munich, D-80637, Bayern, Germany; in the Class AB region and is meant of achieving good DC rejection, and
+49 8932 163427, e-mail: nandi@analogrfic.com. for use with a highly linear low-noise linearity issues with high second-or-
Internet: www.analogrfic.com.
amplifier (LNA). der and third-order intermodulation
The image-reject mixer (Fig. 1) con- products.
M
ixer linearity is criti- sists of eight switching transistors and The second-order products, char-
cal to the perform- four transconductors, with the IF at acterized by the second-order inter-
ance of direct-con- 100 MHz rather than at DC (0 Hz). cept point (IP2), can be a particular
version receivers with It directly downconverts a received problem in direct-conversion receiv-
low intermediate fre- signal to a low IF
quencies (IFs). By bi- using fewer parts Table 1. Mixer linearity requirement
asing a low-IF image-reject mixer de- and local oscilla- calculations for receive signal only.
signed for a fully duplex system, such tor (LO) stages.
-43 dBm
mode
2LO downcoversion with out-of-band interferer
Maximum crest factor 8.6 dB
Maximum LNA gain (typical) 15.8 dB
Rx Maximum input receive band signal -43+8.6+15.8=-17.15 dBm
channel at mixer
Im LO x 2
Im LO Table 2. Mixer linearity requirement
Signal calculations with transmitter signal present.
Maximum input signal at high +29 dBm
Interference Sign
iggna
naal Interference gain mode5
Duplexer attenuation6 50 dB
Crest factor5 8.6 dB

LO phase noise mixing
Image band mixing Typical LNA gain7 15.5 dB
Downconverted LIF signal
1. Some of the problems with direct-conversion receivers are illustrated Maximum signal at mixer input +29-50+8.6+15.8 = +3.1 dBm
at receive band
by this depiction of signal interence.

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IF/RF MICROWAVE COMPONENTS 395 rev J
DesignFeature
R1 R2 R3 R4
C2 C3 C4
C1
M5 M6 M7 M8 M9 M10 M11 M12
180 180
M1 M2 M3 M4
LO 90
2. This diagram represents the quadrature

180
image-reject mixer/demodulator fabri-
RF in
cated in CMOS.
ers1 since the second-order nonlinear- RF and LO signals at similar frequen-

ity also demodulates the amplitude- cies. Although direct interference of
modulation (AM) component of the LO with RF is not an issue in a low-
amplitude-modulated blocker down IF receiver, LO phase noise and phase
to baseband, reducing the receiver’s stability can impact how an incoming
blocking margin. In addition, due to RF signal is processed. To avoid this,
the possible presence of closely spaced the LO is usually operated at twice the
interferers, the downconverter also re- required frequency and then divided
quires a high IIP2. by two.
Due to the reduced amount of fil- Since enhancement-mode CMOS
tering, a direct-conversion receiver transistors are essentially surface de-
is more sensitive to intermodulation vices, they exhibit far more 1/f noise
products, requiring a down-converter offset through about 100 MHz than
mixer with high input third-order in- devices fabricated with other semi-
tercept point (IIP3). Although the IIP3 conductor processes, due to the phe-
can be improved by adjusting bias lev- nomenon of charge trapping. This
els and device size, IIP2 improvements can impact system noise figure since it
are typically achieved by improving adds FM noise that in return restricts
the symmetry of the design, improv- the data that can be received by the
ing the quality of the LO signal, and discriminator circuit.
improving the LO-to-RF port isola- The image-reject mixer is a quadra-
tion of the mixer. Low-IF receivers ture Gilbert-type direct-conversion
must deal with LO feedthrough, with mixer (Fig. 2). It consists of eight
switching transis-
LO power variations versus noise figure tors (M5 to M12)
30 and four transcon-
ductors (M1 to
25
M4), arranged in
LO = –7 dBm
symmetry. A pair
Noise figure—dB
20
LO = –5 dBm
of switching tran-
15 LO = –3 dBm sistors and a single
LO = –1 dBm transconductor con-
10 stitutes a single-bal-
LO = +1 dBm
5 LO = +3 dBm
anced mixer. Each
0 3. This plot shows

0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8
receiver noise figure as
DC offset from carrier (log scale)
a function of LO power.

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DesignFeature
of the differential inputs to the mixer

has a transconductor stage based on
a single NMOS device. The transcon-
ductor converts available voltage to
current to be mixed by the upper sec-
tion of the switches, operated at the
LO frequency. The upper switching
section is controlled both by a gate
bias and by the LO signal at its input.
The applied gate bias thus acts as an
offset voltage to the mixing action of
the circuit. Sharp transitions in the LO
signal reduce the zero-crossing noise
contribution and nonlinearity.
Flicker nose is contributed by two
mechanisms2: the zero crossing of the
tail current (the direct method) and the
induced current in the tail capacitance 4. This diagram represents the image-reject-mixer’s transconductor section.
(the indirect method). Larger capaci-
tive gates tend to reduce the flicker
noise as they filter out some of the
noise.3 The width of the transistor has
been set to 1.5 mm, which is rounded
from the recommended width of 1.54
mm for optimum FT. Due to the frequency-conversion
The minimum noise figure is illus- and requirements when working at low
trated in Eq. 1 4: IFs, the use of reactive components is
γ = the body coefficient, not feasible and active loads result in
(See equation 1) δ = the gate noise coefficient, and excessive noise. Because of this resis-
where c = the correlation coefficient. tive loads are used, although they add
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DesignFeature
to voltage consumption. The speci-

fications for the image-reject mixer
were derived from the overall specifi-
cations for the UMTS receiver as well
as the LNA’s design specifications.
Given that the 3GPP5 UMTS stan-
dard specifies a maximum of -43 dBm
at the receiver input for high gain se-
lection, this then provides the values
shown in Table 1. It includes a listing
for the maximum signal present un-
der typical conditions at the input
of a receive demodulator mixer. But
because the system is full duplex, and
the transmit signal can also be present
at the receiver’s input, the mixer must
be able to handle a relatively high in-
put level under full-duplex conditions
(Table 2).
The conversion gain, Gc, of the
image-reject mixer can be calculated
from Eq. 3 8: 5. This Cadence schematic entry diagram shows the upper switching section of the mixer.
Table 3. Calculating mixer bias.

PARAMETER VALUE
Since voltage gain, AV, is equal to Vt (threshold voltage) 0.500 V
the output voltage divided by input
Vgs (transconductor gate bias) 0.525 V
voltage,
K [K = 0.5μnCox(W/L)] 0.049
Id (transconductor current) 0.607 mA
gm (transconductance) 0.008
RL (load resistor) 450 Ohms
If the degeneration resistance, Av (linear voltage gain) 2.200
RSource, is approximately equal to
Av (voltage gain) 6.849 dB
zero, then
6. Mixer input port

voltage reflection
The optimum transistor width, coefficient is shown
wopt, is derived from Eq. 68: here on a Smith chart.
from which it can be deduced that

the larger the value of input imped-
ance, Rin, the smaller the value of wopt
and the lower the Cgs and Cgd capaci-
tances. The lower the junction capaci-
tance, the higher the value of FT. im-
plying a better noise figure.
The wopt value for the transconduc-
tor devices can be found by assuming
the mixer impedance is 50 Ohms. Us-
ing a frequency of 2.1 GHz for UMTS

DesignFeature
and from ref. 9 values of Cox = 0.86

fF/μm and Lefff = 0.38 μm, the value of (See equation 12)
wopt is 1.54 mm, rounded off to 1.5 The gain of the transconductor where
mm (from Eq. 6) and, from ref. 8, transistors (M1 to M4 I Fig. 2) can be
calculated as in Table 3.
The mixer’s input P1dB point can Larger LO power requirements in-
be calculated from Eq. 1212: dicate a larger drain current require-
and from ref. 10, the transconduc-
tance, gm, is defined as

Given that the device is intended to
operate in saturation, the junction ca-
pacitances are defined as follows11:

and
From the CMOS process manual9

Cov = 0.12 fF/μm and μn = 370 cm2/
Vs, where Cov is the overlap capaci-
tance per unit area, μn is the electron
mobility, Cgs is the gate-source junc-
tion capacitance, and Cgd is the gate-
drain junction capacitance. From this,
Cgd = 180 fF and Cgs = 481 fF, and
since the CMOS device cutoff fre-
quency (FT) is 25 GHz9:
which yields a gm of 104 mS. Assum-

ing that the mixer has a load imped-
ance of 450 Ohms, the voltage gain
from Eq. 5 is a significantly high lin-
ear voltage gain of 29.8.
Having previously calculated the
required input power at 1-dB com-
pression (P1dB) for the mixer to be
+3.4 dBm or more, and performing
the gain equations above, it is neces-
sary to reduce current across the de-
vice to improve linearity. The mixer’s

devices must be biased in the unsatu-

rated region or even in the weak in-

version layer. In power amplifier ter-

minology, this could be categorized as
Class B or Class AB operation.
For AV = 2.2 (linear gain), RL =

450 Ohms, then from Eq. 4:

DesignFeature
ment through the switching quads.

However, the larger the value of drain
current, the greater will be the amount
of flicker noise. There is merit in low- usually implemented to compensate switching LO power requirements.
ering the drain current and increasing for LO power levels. In other words, Two important points to bear in
the load resistors to improve the gain. the common-mode voltage can be mind in biasing the mixer is to ensure
In an active mixer, DC biasing is increased to compensate for higher that (1) when there is no voltage at the
gate of the transconductor stage of the
mixer, the current through the mixer
should be zero, and (2) the common-
mode voltage of the switching mixer is
the zero crossing point. At this point,
the mixer current should be zero. Bet-
ter switching is always performed by
an ideal square wave signal. For this
work, the signal to the image-reject
mixer is fed externally, typically via a
frequency divider. This produces what
is called a square-sine-wave signal,
since the divider acts as an over-satu-
rated amplifier to give square edges to
the sine wave. The external LO signal
supplied for this work is specified as
PLO = -5 dBm ± 2 dB.
Flicker noise is difficult to filter
and is expressed by Eq. 14. 2
From Fig. 3 it can be seen that LO

power level affects mixer noise figure
performance; for power levels above
–3 dBm, the improvement is small.
The explanation is that beyond a cer-
tain power level, the switching gates
are sufficiently open and the resistive
contribution of the mixer is reduced.
In other words, the mixer is switching
between an “on” state and an “off”
state. Beyond this point, the extra re-
duction in noise figure may be due to
the improved on resistance, Ron, of the
mixer and the extra generator affects
of the channel length modulation.
The mixer is divided in to two sec-
tions, the transconductor stage, from
M1 to M4 in Fig. 2, and the switching
stage, from M5 to M12 in Fig. 2. For
ease of implementation, the image-
reject mixer was designed in submod-
ules, one for the two transconduc-
tors and the other with two switches.
The image-reject mixer consists of
two transconductor blocks and four

DesignFeature
switching blocks.
The circuit in Fig. 4 is symmetrical to ensure good LO
and harmonic suppression, and high IP2. The inputs are
matched to the conjugate impedance of the proceeding
LNA, for maximum signal transfer at the desired frequency
band. The NMOS transistors in Fig. 5 are maintained at a
maximum width of 1.5 mm for optimum FT performance.
This minimizes flicker noise while maintaining conditions
for optimum thermal noise, as shown in Eq. 1. The input
(continued on p. 95)
+25
100 MHz. 5.96 dB
0
Output voltage—V
–25
–50
–75
–100
–125
0.0 0.5 1.0 1.5 2.0 2.5 3.0
Frequency—GHz
7. This plot shows voltage gain (periodic steady-state response) for the
image-reject mixer.
Periodic noise response

23
1100 M
MHz,
H,z22.0
Hz , 22.0
22dB
d.0 dB
d
22
1155 M
MHz,
H,z19.7
Hz , 19.7
19.7 7 dB
dB d
21
2200 M
MHz,
MHH,z,
z18.3
,818.3
138.3 dB
Noise figure—dB
20
3300 M
MHz,
MHHz,
H, zz,16.7
16.7
16.7 dB
19
40 MHz,
MHz
Hz15.9
40 MHz, , 15.9
15.9
5.9 dB
d
18
17 50.2
50.
50.2 MHz,
M,Hz,
MHH15.5
zz,, 15.5
15.5 dB
16
999.5
99.
99
9.
9.5 MH
MHz,
M
MHz
Hz
H,z, 11444.7
.7 dB
15
14
0 25 50 75 100 125 150
Frequency—MHz
8. This plot shows the noise-figure performance of the CMOS image-

reject mixer.
–15
Input
put referred
ref
re
efe
fer
errreed
ed 11-dB
-dB
-ddB cco
compression
ompre
pre
ressi
ssio
sion = 33.6
.6696
69966 ddBm
m
–20
–25
First order
–30
–35
–40
–45
–25 –20 –15 –10 –5 0 +5
RF power—dBm
9. This plot shows the input compression-point performance of the
image-reject mixer.

DIRECTCONVERSION RECEIVER
DesignFeature
Semiconductors Simplify
Direct-Conversion Design
Advances in semiconductor processes have enabled integrated circuits
with the performance needed for wireless infrastructrure
direct-conversion receivers for multimode communications systems.
receiver approaches for wireless base adjacent WCDMA signals can crowd
CECILE MASSE stations, and combined the benefits of a 20-MHz bandwidth.
Senior RF System Engineer
a balanced and blocker-immune RF The challenges of a broadband
Analog Devices, 831 Woburn St., Wilmington, MA
01887-4601; Internet: www.analog.com. demodulator with analog-to-digital receiver design lie in the capability
converter (ADC) technology utilizing to demodulate low-level, high-data-
adaptive correction techniques for the rate signals in the presence of high
residual signal impairments. interfering signals. By definition, a
D
irect-conversion architec- The 3G Long Term Evolution multicarrier RF receiver has no ana-
tures enable the broad- (LTE) wireless communications stan- log channel selectivity, and unwant-
band radios needed to dard supports a variety of channel ed blockers reach the ADC without
support multimode, bandwidths from 1.4 to 20 MHz. A being attenuated. This leads to high
multiple standards in minimum bandwidth requirement of dynamic-range requirements for the
third-generation (3G) 20 MHz is commonly used, whether receiver building blocks, especially
and fourth-generation (4G) wireless the equipment supports LTE-only the ADC. For instance, a 3G LTE
networks. The capability of handling carriers or a mix of 3G (WCDMA) blocking requirement calls out nar-
signals from 400 MHz to 4 GHz or LTE (OFDM) carriers. Such wide rowband blockers 60 dB above the
across the globe has pushed infra- bandwidth allows multiple adjacent desired signal. As a result, a multicar-
structure and mobile-device develop- or nonadjacent carriers to be re- rier receiver should have a high input
ers to seek new levels of performance ceived. For example, as many as four 1-dB compression point, high-resolu-
for the components in
those systems. Fortu- I/Q demodulator 16-b ADC
nately, improved silicon (ADL5380) (AD9269)
germanium (SiGe) and
CMOS semiconductor ADC
LNA1 LNA2
processes are allowing (ADL5521) (ADL5521)
higher levels of integra- 0 deg.
tion with low power DGA
90 deg.
consumption. And a Image
direct-conversion arch- filter ADC
itecture enables a ra-
dio designer to cover a Fractional-N PLL
large frequency range (ADF4350)
and with scalable band- 1. This block diagram represents a broadband
widths on a single hard- direct-conversion receiver capable of handling Reference
ware platform. It offers multiple wireless communications standards and
many advantages over bandwidths. ÷N
traditional IF-sampling

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IF/RF MICROWAVE COMPONENTS 385 rev M
DesignFeature
tion ADCs, and some form of receivers, not requiring the

automatic gain control (AGC) Carrier1 multiple surface-acoustic-
to maintain blocker signal lev- Carrier2 wave (SAW) and discrete fil-
els below the full-scale (FS) Nyquist ters used in a real IF sampling
sampling
level of the ADC. architecture. The baseband
frequency
This immunity to blockers channel filter is typically a
must be achieved along with discrete lowpass design that
acceptable receiver sensitiv- DC Bx Frequency provides both out-of-band
ity. A base-station receiver de- Bx blockers and broadband
signed to support the 3G LTE noise rejection before digi-
standard must have a noise fig- 2. This plot shows baseband demodulation and the principle of the tization. It can be designed
ure (NF) of better than 5 dB. Nyquisst sampling frequency for a multicarrier receive-chain ADC. with much lower insertion
To reach this level of perfor- loss and cost than the IF fil-
mance with margin, the downconvert- cause receiver saturation. Also, exces- ters used in super-heterodyne or real-
ing mixer or demodulator is typically sive gain can degrade linearity and IF sampling architectures. With an I/Q
preceded by a few low-noise-amplifier affect signal integrity when inter- demodulator, the baseband cutoff fre-
(LNA) stages. Front-end gain helps modulation products from high-level quency need only to be one-half of the
improve the overall NF according to blockers fall within the desired signal total signal bandwidth for a complex
the Friis equation: bandwidth. A suitable quadrature modulated signal centered at 0 Hz.
NFtotal = NFLNAs + (NFdemod - 1)// demodulator must provide a good For example, assume the multicar-
GLNAs+[NFADC -1/(GLNAsGdemod)] (1) balance between noise figure and lin- rier RF input signal at the receiver
However, front-end gain cannot earity, as measured by the third-order antenna is a nonsymmetrical double-
be set arbitrarily high since a strong intercept point (IP3). sideband signal centered on a carrier
blocking signal at the antenna could Quadrature demodulator ampli- frequency F0. A quadrature demodu-
tude and phase errors can cause in- lator operating at LO = F0 converts
band images or unwanted sideband the real RF signal into a complex
energy. In a multicarrier receiver, baseband signal. It generates both the
strong in-band interfering signals may real and imaginary components at the
be adjacent to modulated carriers at difference and sum frequencies LO+/-
the receiver sensitivity level. Main- F0 or 0 Hz and 2F0. Lowpass filters
taining adequate amplitude and phase remove the sum terms, signal harmon-
balance through the baseband de- ics, and noise before analog-to-digital
modulation process is critical to good conversion. If the total signal band-
receiver performance. The image-re- width is Bx, then the filter cutoff fre-
jection requirement is determined by quency should be set at Fc > Bx/2.
the difference between the strongest Another key advantage of a direct-
and weakest in-band signals, the re- conversion approach is the lower
quired signal-to-noise ratio (Eb/No) ADC sampling rate requirement since
for demodulation, and margin for the I/Q signal bandwidth is only one-
other noise contributions. The 3G half the total composite signal band-
LTE standard calls for at least 60-dB
total image rejection. Reciprocal mix- Carrier1
ing in a broadband receiver is also an
important phenomenon to consider
when specifying demodulator local- Image
Carrier2 rejection
oscillator (LO) phase noise. The LO
phase noise modulates nearby unfil-
tered blockers, adding Pblocker_dBm -
LO_Noise dBc/Hz noise to the wanted
Frequency
channel.
LO leakage at DC
A direct-conversion signal chain
(Fig. 1) provides a low-cost receiver 3. An image signal generated by one carrier
solution for 3G and 4G systems. It is can be at a level sufficient to corrupt a sec-
a less complex architecture than other ond, nearby (in frequency) carrier.

DesignFeature
4 able high-quality RF
performance to 6
3 GHz for the demodu- YIG Filters, Oscillators and
2 lator’s active mixer
cells.
S nt esi er Mod les or
1 In the baseband De ense & Aeros ace
0
down-conversion A lications
process, some energy
-1 is generated at DC
º
TA = +25 C through the quadra-
-2 ture modulator. Any
TA = +85ºC
-3 LO signal leaking
TA = -40ºC
back to the RF input
-4
mixes with that same
400
600
800
1000
1200
1400
1600
1800
2000
2200
2400
2600
2800
3000
LO signal, resulting
LO frequency—MHz in a DC component.
Demodulating the RF
4. The quadrature phase error of the ADL5380 I/Q demodulator is carriers to a multiple
within ±0.5 deg. over the full LO frequency range. of one-half of the
channel bandwidth is
width. With downconverted signals one way of avoiding co-channel DC
centered at DC, the sampling theory offsets. The DC component ampli-
then requires a sampling rate at least tude should not impair the receiver’s
2(Bx/2) or Bx, which is one-half of ability to receive weak signals.
the minimum sampling rate required As part of a direct-conversion re-
by an IF sampling receiver for the de- ceiver, the ADL5380 and ADL5382
modulation of the same bandwidth. I/Q demodulators from Analog Devic-
For a 20-MHz-capable LTE receiver, es (www.analog.com) were designed
this corresponds to a Nyquist sam- to achieve broadband operation with
pling rate over 20 MHz for each I and optimum LO leakage and image sup-
Q path (Fig. 2). pression. Ideally, the demodulator
Despite the advantages, direct- implements a single-sideband mixing
conversion radio design does not operation with two mixers. An ampli-
come without difficulty. Any gain or fied local oscillator (LO) signal is fed
phase imbalance on the I and Q paths directly to the first mixer, while that
or non-exact 90-deg. phase shift of same signal, shifted by 90 deg., is fed
the demodulator circuit will result to the second mixer.
in energy at the unwanted sideband To meet the performance specifica-
frequency. When such a receiver tions with sufficient margin, the I/Q
downconverts the desired multicarrier demodulator employs an optimized
signals around zero Hz (zero-IF), the LO buffer and phase-shifter circuit. Its
desired carriers will be on both sides innovative circuit topology maintains
of DC (Fig. 3). Carrier 1 image around an accurate 90-deg. phase shift over
DC appears on the next channel where a wide frequency range, while main-
Visit Gi a-tronics
a weaker carrier may be present. Poor taining circuit noise below the phase
Boot 1113
image rejection will therefore limit the noise from the LO PLL. The design
receiver sensitivity if no digital cali- is optimized for minimum AM/PM
bration is used. Anti-alias filter com- distortion, making it insensitive to
ponents tolerance may also impact the LO drive level with enhanced second-
overall image rejection performance. order distortion performance.
Until recently, it was quite difficult to The ADL5380’s LO-to-RF leakage
achieve acceptable levels of gain and was measured as better than -50 dBm
phase balance over a wide bandwidth. to 3 GHz while the ADL5382 I/Q de-
Newer SiGe process technologies en- modulator achieves even lower leak-

DesignFeature
age performance, exceeding modulated RF signal was

-60 dBm to 2.3 GHz. The 0 generated using a direct-
gain imbalance is better than –15 conversion transmitter built
–56--dBm
–56-dBm
–30 WCDMA carrier
WCDMA car
ca
carr
arr
rrrier
ieer
Amplitude—dBm
+/-0.1 dB and phase imbal- –45 –118-dBm
––118-d
118--dBm
11 around the AD9122 dual
ance is better than +/-0.5 deg. –60 WCDMA carrier
WCDMA car
arr
rrrier
ieer digital-to-analog converter
(Fig. 4), resulting in image re- –75 (DAC) and ADL5375 broad-
–90
jection of better than 50 dB. band quadrature modulator.
–105
Such high sideband rejection –120 With a total receiver gain
eases the requirement for –135 of 28 dB and the AD9269
digital calibration in a zero- –30 M –24 M –18 M –12 M –6 M 0 6 M 12 M 18 M 24 M 30 M SNR of 76 dBFS, no AGC
IF implementation. was needed to maintain high
The ADL5380 I/Q de- 5. Even with strong blocker signals, the direct-conversion receiver is receiver sensitivity while
modulator was designed to capable of processing multiple, low-level WCDMA carrier signals. accommodating in-band
cover 0.4 to 4.0 GHz with blockers to -25 dBm. A dis-
500-MHz baseband bandwidth. It ex- null the gain imbalance using a fre- crete fourth-order lowpass LC filter
hibits low noise figure of 13 dB to 3 quency-independent adaptive correc- with 30-MHz cutoff frequency was
GHz and -10 dBm of RF input power tion loop. It corrects as much as +/-1 designed to properly attenuate out-of-
level. In blocking conditions, the noise dB of amplitude error and +/-1.8 deg. band noise and support to 40 MHz
figure holds well at less than 17 dB of phase mismatch, which is more of complex demodulation bandwidth
for an input power as high as 0 dBm than sufficient to correct for I/Q de- (see table).
RMS. Assuming the front-end gain is modulator residual imbalances as well The AD9269 dual ADC running
25 dB, this means good resilience for as from other sources like the base- at 80 MSamples/s in this example only
blockers of -25 dBm at the antenna. band filter or ADC input stage. Algo- dissipates 400 mW, about 100 mW
The demodulator reaches 1-dB rithm convergence is enhanced due to lower than an equivalent IF sampling
compression with at least +11 dBm the already low level of impairments ADC running at 120 MSamples/s.
input power and has an input third- of the I/Q demodulator. When constant tracking of impair-
order intercept point of better than To complete the calibration ments is not needed, the AD9269’s
+25 dBm. The dynamic range, or delta scheme, the AD9269 also integrates a automatic correction can be frozen to
between compression point and noise DC nulling notch filter with adaptive further save power.
floor in a 20-MHz bandwidth is close cut-off frequency. It helps eliminate The receiver was tested in a multi-
to 100 dB, making this circuit suitable the unwanted DC offset components. carrier configuration using WCDMA
for broadband 3G/4G multi-carrier To demonstrate the viability of a vectors (Fig. 5). The RF signal at the
systems. The design and layout of the direct-conversion solution, the receiv- first LNA input is made of two adja-
I/Q demodulator interface to the ADC er of Fig. 1 was built and character- cent WCDMA signals with the stron-
is critical to ensure good I and Q sig- ized using components from Analog gest signal 62 dB above the weakest,
nal balance. Anti-alias filter compo- Devices. It was designed using two at -56 dBm. An unmodulated blocker
nent tolerance, as well as tight control ADL5521 LNAs, the ADL5380 I/Q at -25 dBm is also added. In this con-
over the differential traces length is demodulator, a baseband DGA, and dition, the receiver was capable of
critical for a successful design. the AD9269 dual ADC. The input demodulating the faint WCDMA car-
Further DC offset cancel- rier down to -118 dBm. This
lation and image correction Summarizing receiver performance meets the 3G standard sen-
can be achieved in the digital sitivity level in a much more
PARAMETER
domain following the ADC’s stringent blocking environ-
digital conversion. This ex- 28 ment. Not including the CW
ample direct-conversion Noise figure without blocker (dB) 2.6 blocker present, the receiver
receiver employs the 16-b Input IP3 (dBm) +2 can demodulate WCDMA
AD9269 pipeline ADC. It Anti-alias filter in-band ripple (dB) ± 0.25 up to 20 MHz signals down to -124 dBm
implements an integrated in the presence of additional
CW Image rejection (dBFS)
DC offset and quadrature Without QEC –50 stronger carriers to -52 dBm,
error-correction scheme. The With QEC –95 with the AD9269 image cor-
algorithm estimates I and Q DC offset (dBFS) rection loop running. This
signal DC offset, gain and Without correction –70 corresponds to 6 dB margin
With correction –103
phase mismatches, and ap- over the 3G standard sensi-
plies a correction vector to Power dissipation (W) 3 tivity requirement.

DesignFeature
Table 4. Reviewing gain and noise figure Cable and Broadcasting Services, 2009.
8. Thomas H. Lee, The Design of CMOS Radio-Frequency Integrated Circuits, 1st ed., Cambridge
for key components. University Press, 1998, pp. 156, 177, 382, and 419.
9. Austriamicrosystems Process Manual, ENG-182 rev 4, pp. 12-24, http://www.Austriamicro-
CIRCUIT BLOCK GAIN NF systems.com.
6 10. B. Rezavi, RF Microelectronics, Prentice-Hall, Upper Saddle River, NJ, 1998, p. 21.
–2.0 dB 2.0 dB
11. Randall L. Geiger, Phillip. E. Allen, and Noel. R Strader, VLSI Design Techniques for Analog and
LNA7 15.4 dB 1.57 dB Digital Circuits, McGraw-Hill, New York, 1990, p. 165.
12. RF IC Design web site: http://www.rfic.co.uk.
Mixer 5.96 14.7 13. O. K. Jensen, T. E. Kolding, Chris. R. Iversen, S. Laursen, R. V. Reynisson, J. H. Mikkelsen, E.
Pedersen, M. B. Jenner, and T. Larsen, “RF Receiver Requirements for 3G WCDMA Mobile Equip-
Receiver (cascaded effect) 21.36 4.54 ment,” Microwave Journal,l Vol. 43, No. 2, February 2000, pp. 22-46.
(continued from p. 89)

port voltage reflection coefficient is
very good (Fig. 6). The S11 input re-
turn loss indicates that the input port
is well matched as it is near the center
of the Smith chart. Antenna Research
Figure 7 shows a differential mixer 12201 Indian Creek Court
Beltsville, MD 20705
gain of 5.96 dB. The gain obtained in 1-877-272-7253
initial bias calculations for linear gain sales@ara-inc.com
www.ara-inc.com
per balanced mixer was 6.8 dB (Table
2). The 1-dB discrepancy could be at- Antenna Research Associates, Inc.
tributed to parasitic losses and tran- Offers 45 years of experience in the development of a diverse
sistor second-order effects. line of broadband antennas, integrated antenna systems, and
The mixer’s noise figure varies accessories that cover frequency ranges from 100Hz to 100GHz
from 22 dB at offset of 10 MHz to for both Commercial and Military applications.
14.7 dB at an offset of 100 MHz from
ARA offers a wide range of Tactical Antennas and Systems
the 0-Hz DC point (Fig. 8). The high including: Log-Periodic Antennas (30 MHz-40 GHz) and
values near DC are as a direct result Reflector Antennas (1 GHz to 40 GHz) for Military applications.
of the flicker noise contribution that
exists in all surface devices. Table 4 For more information about
shows the overall receiver noise figure Antenna Research please
for a UMTS handheld terminal de- Call or Email the ARA Sales Team at
signed with this mixer, the front-end sales@ara-inc.com or 1.877.272.7253
duplex filter of ref. 6, and LNA of ref.
7. Allowing 2-dB margin of error, the
maximum noise contribution must
not exceed 9.4 dB in the receiver.13
The input compression point of
the mixer/de-modulator circuit is just
under +3.7 dBm at the input. This is
deemed sufficient to provide a linear
translation of the amplified RF signal
to a low IF for detection.
REFERENCES
1. Behzad Rezavi, “Design Considerations for Direct-
Conversion Receivers,” IEEE Transactions on Circuits and
Systems II: Analog and Digital Signal Processing, Vol. 44,
No.6, June 1997.
2. H. Darabi and A. A. Abidi, “Noise in RF-CMOS mixers: A
simple physical model,” IEEE Journal of Solid-State Circuits,
Vol. 35, October 2000, pp. 1528-1545.
3. H. Sjoland, A.Karim-Sanjaani, “A Merged CMOS LNA and
Mixer for a WCDMA Receiver,” IEEE Journal of Solid-State
Circuits, Vol. 38, June 2003, pp. 1045-1050.
4. Thomas H Lee, The Design of CMOS Radio-Frequency
Integrated Circuits, 2nd Ed., Cambridge University Press,
p. 369, 2004.
5. The 3 GPP UMTS Standard: http://www.3gpp.org.
6. EPCOS Components. Available online at: http://www.
usa.epcos.com/Web/share/all/files/RFProducts/WCDMA.
pdf. Pictured: LPD-3100
7. N. Logan and J. M. Noras, “Merits of a SiGe Bipolar LNA
over a silicon CMOS LNA at 2.1 GHz,” 9th International IEEE
Conference on Telecommunications in Modern Satellite,

applicationnotes
DURING THE SIMULATION of a complete subsystem, LAN, or RS-232 connections. As a result, designers
Bring the quality of the measurement data is critical to can perform tradeoff studies to optimize a circuit
Measurement determining whether the finished product will using the data obtained from the test equipment.
Equipment meet or exceed the demands faced by the system
when in use. Ideally, that measurement data will
The VSS/TestWave user interface imports signals,
manages data, and controls the test equipment.
Into System allow engineers to save time and money by mak- During simulation, the block configures the test
Simulation ing changes to the system earlier in the design equipment, passes variables to the instruments,
process. Of course, that capability requires a direct and collects measurement data from the instru-
link between the system simulation software and ments for use in analysis. To illustrate the resulting
measurement equipment. One way to accomplish capabilities, examples are provided ranging from
this link is by coupling tools like AWR’s Visual the generation and passing of a signal through a
System Simulator (VSS) communications-system power amplifier to evaluating the performance of
design software with the TestWave software. AWR radar systems that employ pulsed signals.
details this approach with a four-page white paper
titled, “Hardware in the Loop.” AWR Corp., 1960 E. Grand Ave., Suite 430, El Segundo,
The TestWave software connects VSS to test CA 90245; (310) 726-3000, FAX: (310) 726-3005,
and
an d me
meas
asur
urem
emen
entt eq
equi
uipm
pmenentt vi
viaa VI
VISA
SA, GP
GPIBIB, Inte
Intern
rnet
et:: ww
www
w.aw
awrc
rcor
orp
p.co
com
m.
HSPA+ introduces 64 quadrature amplitude modulation (QAM) on the downlink (6 b/symbol),

which promises to increase data rates by 50 percent.
THE 3RD GENERATION PARTNERSHIP PROJECT T (3GPP) of the enhancements included in HSPA+ and their
HSPA+ Paves is the most successful set of telecommunications performance results as well. For example, HSPA+
Way Toward standards in the world. It is estimated that 85 introduces 64 quadrature amplitude modulation
percent of all cellular calls are set up using 3GPP (QAM) on the downlink (6 b/symbol), which
Long Term access technology. To provide 2X the speed and promises to increase data rates by 50 percent.
Evolution 3X the voice capacity of the previous-generation On the uplink, 16QAM doubles data rates from
3GPP standard, High Speed Packet Access (HSPA), 2 b/symbol for quadrature phase shift keying
HSPA Evolution (HSPA+) is leveraging multiple- (QPSK) to 4 b/symbol for user equipment (UE)
input multiple-output (MIMO) technology and that is not power limited.
higher-order modulation. In a white paper by HSPA+ also leverages the double transmit
Anritsu’s Lynne Patterson titled, “HSPA+: Fea- antenna array (D-TxAA) MIMO implementa-
tures and Testing,” the author explains various tion, which enables two independent data streams
aspects of HSPA+, how it can provide a path to to travel simultaneously over the radio channel
the fourth-generation (4G) Long Term Evolution using the same W-CDMA channel code. Among
(LTE
(L TE)) stand
dard,
d andd testiing requiirements. the
h oth her speciiall features examined
i d by th he auth
hor
The 11-page white paper begins by provid- are continuous packet connectivity (CPC) and
ing a summary of the evolution of the 3GPP enhanced CELL_VACH and improved layer 2
standards. From the introduction of GSM as a for downlink.
second-generation (2G) time-division-multiple- With HSPA+ networks already launched
access (TDMA) standard in 1991, evolution has across the globe, it is essential that test equipment
been continuous. HSPA+ is currently the leading stay ahead of this standard in terms of evolution.
3GPP standard, as it supports downlink peak The final part of the white paper details how
rates to 28 Mb/s (42 Mb/s in 3GPP Release 8) Anritsu has added HSPA+ to existing product
and as much as 11 Mb/s in the uplink. A table is lines via both software and hardware upgrades. It
included to show the differences between 3GPP provides brief overviews of the firm’s MD8480C
Release 7 and 8 HSPA+. signaling tester, MT8820B radio communication
By improving radio link performance, opera- analyzer, MS269xA signal analyzer, MG3700A
tors can upgrade to HSPA+ while taking advan- vector signal generator, and ME7873/4F TRX/
tage of their existing infrastructure. Because RRM conformance tester.
HSPA+ is backward compatible with all previ-
ous wideband code division multiple access Anritsu Co., 490 Jarvis Dr., Morgan Hill, CA 95037-
(W-CDMA) releases, the upgrade promises to be 2809; (408) 778-2000, FAX: (408) 776-1744, Internet:
simple and smooth. The document provides a list www.anritsu.com.

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IF/RF MICROWAVE COMPONENTS 463 rev C
COVERstory
S P E E D Y S W I TC H E S
Speedy Switches Minimize

Gate Lags These novel GaAS pHEMT microwave
switches minimize gate lag times from almost
30 μs to less than 20 ns by applying a
patent-pending semiconductor process.
S
ANDREW FREESTON witching speed is a complex parameter that includes a number of events, each with
Principal Engineer its own duration. By means of a patent-pending pseudomorphic-high-electron-
TIMOTHY BOLES mobility-transistor (pHEMT) technology, M/A-COM Technology Solutions (www.
Technology Fellow macomtech.com) has found a way to dramatically shorten the duration of one of
COSTAS VARMAZIS these events—a switch’s settling time—to the benefit of systems requiring tight
Technology Fellow control of time-domain parameters, such as packet-based communications networks
M/A-COM Technology and radar systems. The technology is available in a line of switches operating from
Solutions, 100 Chelmsford 10 MHz to 20 GHz with settling times as fast as 20 ns.
St., Lowell, MA 01851; (978) Switching speed and settling time or “gate lag” both describe high-speed switch performance,
656-2500, Internet: www. but the parameters differ and are often misunderstood. Switching speed is a change in state from
macomtech.com. 10 to 90 percent of an RF envelope when a switch is turned from “off” to “on” by a control signal,
with a certain rise time to the change of state (Fig. 1). The time from the point at which the control
signal is at its 50-percent point until the RF envelope is at its 90-percent point is traditionally
denoted as ton The time for the envelope to change from 10 to 90 percent of its value is the rise time
and denoted as trise. When a switch is turned from “on” to “off” by a control signal, tofff is the time
from a 50-percent change in the control logic to the full transition from 90 to 10 percent of the RF
envelope, while tfall is the time for the transition only, from 90 to 10 percent of the RF envelope.
Gate lag defines the settling-time characteristics of a switch past its 90- or 10-percent points.
Unfortunately, the last 10 percent of a switch’s transition time can make traditional switching-
speed specifications misleading, since the last10 percent has a different slope than the first 90 percent.
Historically, the response is fairly logarithmic, approaching
1 1.
1.00V// 2
00V/ 3 4 Stop
St 1 1.
1 53
53VV the fully settled value. Typically, for a switch with a 90-percent
50-percent control to 90-perceent RF point of 10 ns, the 100-percent point may require hundreds
DC control of milliseconds. This long settling time, known as gate lag,
τ 1 -percent RFF to 90-percent RFF
10
1 -percent RF to 97.5-percent RF
10 poses problems for many systems.
Ungated Gate
XX11 RF envelope surface Ungated
charge recess
Source Drain
region region
X22
∆X = 20.
0 00
0000 ns 1 ∆X = 50.00
1/ 0000 MH
MHz ∆Y(1
∆Y ( ) = 4.35
350 V
Mode Source X Y X1 X2
Normal 1 3.000 ns 23.000 ns Depletion regions Channel charge
1. This plot provides a graphical depiction of switch settling time. 2. Cross-section of a typical MESFET/PHEMT device.

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IF/RF MICROWAVE COMPONENTS 476 Rev. Orig.
Cover Story
Device gate lag can be measured Gate

VG VD Drain
as the change in RF power through a
device from 90 percent of the settled
Isolation
value to some point later, such as 97.5 Insulating implant
or 100 percent, depending on available dielectric
equipment and methods. It can also
be observed as a change in resistance Proprietary ID
between two fixed time points after the III-V
control signal changes, since a switch- low-gate-lag GaAs
ing device exhibits low resistance in layer buffer
GaAs substrate (SI)
the “on” state and high resistance in
the “off” state. For example, the gate Superlattice
lag of a device may be described as a
0.5-Ohm variation from 10 μs to 10 3. This pHEMT cross-section shows the proprietary low-gate-lag layer.
ms after a change in the control signal.
Although gate lag cannot be eliminated, state. Faster settling means less power described in terms of resistance and
M/A-COM Technology Solutions has dissipation due to unsettled series resis- capacitance. A FET gate is small in size
developed its own solution for minimiz- tance, and cooler operating junction and somewhat lossy. Because a large-val-
ing delays due to gate lag. temperatures at high power. ue gate resistor is typically used in most
Whether seen as delays or variations Switching delays are primarily related switch designs for DC-to-RF isolation,
in switch impedance, high-speed switch- to a time-dependent charge/discharge it contributes to a resistive-capacitive
ing is essential in many test applications decay effect of changing a static charge (RC) time constant. For any transition
as well as in other systems. Some com- that is stored in the active device and in state (as a first-order approximation),
plex packet-based modulation schemes its associated circuitry. Several things the device channel must be depleted or
rely on fast transmit/receive or diversity cause the lag to be present, and can be restored, and the field around the gate
switching to optimize data throughput must be created or removed.
and reduce the signal-to-noise ratio. At the device level, switching speed
Device resistance versus time
If the switch is still settling when the and any associated gate lag can be under-
1000
first packet is transmitted through it, Low-gate lag data stood by reference to a simplified cross
the envelope shape could be rounded, section of a GaAs MESFET/pHEMT
Device resistance—Ohms
Slow-setting device
potentially compromising the data. For (Fig. 2). The RF switching time is dom-
100
high-data-rate communications applica- inated by the charge in the channel
tions, rapid settling performance quickly region, in both the gated and ungated
can allow for reductions in waiting time recess regions adjacent to the gate. The
10
prior to transmitting. More available device turn-on time is the time required
time for data transmission results in to move charge from the source through
improved throughput. the channel region to the drain after
1
Fast-settling-time switches can also application of a control signal. The turn-
5
0 –4
0 –4
10 –
10 –
10 –
bring thermal benefits. When RF power on time is a function of the delay associ-
x1
x1
5x
1x
2x
1.5
2.5
is applied to a device that is not fully ated with filling the channel region with
Time—s
settled, there will be significantly more charge. This includes channel charge
power dissipation until reaching steady 4. These plots show device resistance vs time. associated with the gate capacitance
and surface trap charge in
The low-gate-lag switch products at a glance the ungated recess region.
SWITCH MODEL Type Frequency range Insertion Isolation Power at 1-dB Package The turn-off time is the
(GHz) loss (dB) (dB) comp. (dBm) type
MASW-007107 SPDT 0.01-8.00 0.5 30 +30 at 3 V 2-mm, 8-lead PDFN
reverse, with full turn-
MASW-007587 DPDT, diversity, high power 0.01-4.00 0.8 30 +39.5 at 5 V 3-mm, 12-lead PQFN
off not complete until all
MASW-007588 SPDT, high power 0.01-6.00 0.8 28 +40 at 3 V 3-mm, 12-lead PQFN charge is removed from
MASW-007921 SPDT, high power 0.01-7.00 0.65 26 +39 at 3 V 2-mm, 8-lead PDFN the channel and recess
MASW-008322 SPDT 0.01-20.00 1.9 at 2 GHz 40 at 20 GHz +30 at -5 V 4-mm, 24-lead PQFN regions.
MASW-008543 SPDT 0.01-4.00 0.7 65 at 2.1 GHz +25 at 3 V MSOP8-EP This device cross-sec-
MASW-008899 SPDT 0.01-3.00 0.4 27 +28 at 3 V SC-70 tional diagram also makes
MASW-008955 SP3T 0.1-3.5 0.55 22 +35 at 2.6 V 2-mm, 8-lead PDFN it possible to visualize the
MASW-009590 SPDT 0.1-8.0 0.6 23 +30 at 3 V bumped die
relatively fast t rise, RF
MASWSS0192 SPDT 0.01-3.00 0.25 20 +28.5 at 2.8 V SC-70
envelope going from a 10

Cover Story
5. Total gate lag of only 18 ns was measured for an optimized pHEMT

switch, from 90-percent to 98-percent of the RF envelope.
Free etched thick film kit!
to 90 percent level, and tfall times, RF envelope going from
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gate terminal. On the other hand, the charge in the ungated
recess region is tied up in surface states and interface traps
and is relatively insensitive to applied bias and can only be
charged or discharged through the resistive-capacitive (RC)
circuit formed by the Schottky diode gate. This filling or
unfilling of these surface charges is a slow process and leads
directly to the long gate lag switching times.
To address these issues with the long RF switching times
associated with the long times associated gate lag dominated
change of state, a number of changes were made to the exist-
ing pHEMT process used to fabricate microwave switches.
These changes are shown in the cross section of the improved
pHEMT device (Fig. 3). The number of surface states and
interface traps were reduced at the ungated GaAs surface via
a combination of cleaning techniques and the deposition of
a passivating dielectric. Also, the formation of the Schottky
diode gate was modified to both reduce gate resistance with
no additional gate capacitance and to minimize the RC
charging time associated with device turn on and turn off.
Lastly, a proprietary III-V layer was added to the pHEMT
structure to further reduce the channel resistance and enable
enhanced movement of charge through the device especially
from the ungated recess region. This process optimization
results in a dramatic improvement in switching speed over
standard pHEMT devices. The patent-pending process yields
settling-time characteristics that are dramatically improved
compared to existing switch products (Fig. 4), without sig-
nificantly impacting other device parameters.
Figures 4 and 5 show measurements of Ron versus time for
switching FETs manufactured with a standard pHEMT process
and with the process optimized for low lag switching. The

Cover Story
on-resistance performance and device- was observed for the typical pHEMT missions, radar systems, and many other
to-device variations are dramatically switch to go from 90 to 98 percent of applications that are time-variation criti-
improved with the new process. Wafer- the RF envelope. With the optimized cal. This new switch family offers fast
to-wafer switching characteristics are pHEMT process, which includes the settling-time performance as a result of
also much more consistent with the new proprietary III-V low gate lag layer, the semiconductor fabrication process opti-
process. It is important to consider that total gate lag delay for the same 90- to mization that can dramatically reduce
in the isolated, or “off” condition, the 98-percent was only 18 ns (Fig. 5). the total switching time with excellent
device has thousands of Ohms of resis- The table provides a performance electrical performance. M/A-COM
tance. A device could hit the 90-percent summary for a group of switches with Technology Solutions, 100 Chelmsford
point rapidly, yet still have a long way fast settling times, from 10 MHz through St., Lowell, MA 01851; (978) 656-2500,
to go to be settled: the absolute range 20 GHz (Fig. 6). The fastest of these Internet: www.macomtech.com.
of change is very large. On high isola- devices is model MASW-009590, a sin- ACKNOWLEDGMENT
tion switches that are manufactured gle-pole, double-throw (SPDT) switch The authors wish to acknowledge the assistance and
support of the M/A-COM Technology Solutions wafer
with a standard pHEMT process, the die with 97.5-percent settled point of fabrication personnel and engineering staff.
standard switching speed specifications about 20 ns. It is usable from 10 MHz REFERENCES
1. A. F. Basile, A. Mazzanti, E. Manzini, G. Verzellesi, C. Canali,
can be misleading, since the transition to 8 GHz with 0.6-dB insertion loss R. Pierobon, and C. Lanzieri, “Experimental and numerical
is proportional to the absolute signal and 23-dB isolation, It can handle +30 analysis of gate- and drain-lag phenomena in AlGaAs/
InGaAs PHEMTs,” 10th IEEE International Symposium on
level variation. The sharper turn-on dBm power at 1-dB compression when Electron Devices and Optoelectronic Applications, EDMO
2002, pp. 63-68.
characteristics of the low gate lag process running from a +3-VDC supply. This 2. S. Dhar, V. R. Balakrishman, V. Kumar, and S.
provide dependable rapid transitions. switch family includes parts that are high Ghosh,“Determination of energetic distribution of inter-
face states between gate metal and semiconductor in
To gauge the speed benefits from the power, others that are very broadband, sub-micron devices from current-voltage characteristics,”
IEEE Transactions on Electron Devices, Vol. 47, Issue 2, pp.
new process, a typical pHEMT switch and one with very high isolation. 282-287, February 2000.
was compared to switches fabricated Gate lag is an important parameter 3. A. Freeston, “Understanding Gate Lag and How it Dif-
fers From Switching Speed,” Microwave Product Digest,
with the new process. A time of 274 μs in test systems, packet-based data trans- September 2008.

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M I C R O WAV E M AT E R I A L S
ProductTechnology
Industry Insight
Suppliers Enhance
Substrate Performance
Designers working at microwave frequencies have a long list of
circuit-board materials to choose from, some tailored
for specific applications, such as amplifiers and antennas.
glass. The CLTE-XT material boasts a lightweight material (density of 1.37 g/

Technical Director
dielectric constant of 2.94 at 10 GHz cm3) is ideal for airborne antennas and
with a tolerance of ±0.03, and loss tan- other weight-sensitive designs.
gent of 0.0012. Ideal for military appli- High-frequency designs based on
E
lectronic substrate mate- cations, the material has a low z-axis ceramic substrates are still much in
rials are like the founda- coefficient of thermal expansion (CTE) demand, with an increasing use of low-
tion in a building: rarely of 20 PPM/ºC and thermal conductivity temperature-cofired-ceramic (LTCC)
noticed, but critical to of 0.56 W/mK. The commercial version, substrates to form small components.
the overall architecture. CLTE-AT, has a dielectric constant of LTCC circuit materials, such as those
For RF/microwave cir- 3.0 at 200 MHz and 10 GHz and holds offered by Minicaps (www.minicaps.
cuits, the printed-circuit- it to a tolerance of ±0.04. com) and Kyocera (www.kyocera.com),
board (PCB) substrate Some suppliers have developed feature a dielectric constant of 7.8 at
or laminate material is an essential lower-cost alternatives to PTFE based 1 MHz with CTE of 5.8 PPM/°C from
building block that must be stable over on thermoset materials. Along with its +25 to +300°C. For those wishing to
time and temperature with low signal lines of PTFE-based materials, Rog- get started with LTCC, some compa-
losses at microwave frequencies. ers Corporation (www.rogerscorp. nies offer design/fab services, including
Although PTFE has long been a sub- com) now offers RO4360 copper-clad Barry Industries (www.barryltcc.com),
strate of choice at microwave frequen- laminates based on a ceramic-filled, and LTCC Lab (www.ltcclab.com).
cies, pure PTFE tends to suffer from thermoset resin system reinforced by To assist designers working with
variations over time and temperature. glass fiber. With a dielectric constant LTCC, DuPont Microcircuit Materi-
For that reason, suppliers offer PTFE- of 6.15 and dissipative factor (loss) of als (http://mcm.dupont.com)—part of
based circuit-board substrates that are 0.003 at 2.5 GHz, the laminates cater DuPont Electronic Technologies—has
reinforced with rigid filler materials, such to the needs of RF/microwave amplifier teamed with software supplier CAD
as glass or ceramic fibers or particles. designers trying to miniaturize their Design Software (www.cad-design.com)
Taconic (www.taconic-add.com) circuits. Compatible with standard to incorporate LTCC models and manu-
for example, offers different PTFE- printed-circuit-board (PCB) processes, facturing processes into the software
based materials with either ceramic the materials feature the low loss and company’s design tools. DuPont’s Green
or woven-glass fillers. The firm’s TLC excellent power-handling capabilities. Tape 941 and 943 materials are now
substrates, for example, are reinforced They boast a CTE in the z axis (30 part of CAD Design Software’s Ceramic
with woven glass and target low-cost RF PPM/ºC) needed for reliable plated Design library. Users can customize line
and microwave applications. Different through holes (PTHs) in multilayer widths and spacings on circuit designs,
versions of the material exhibit dielec- circuits. Rogers has also built upon its or use preset files. This is one instance
tric constants of 2.75, 3.00, and 3.20. legacy of PTFE-based products with of CAE support for specific materials,
Arlon (www.arlon-med.com) fortifies RT/duroid 5880LZ laminate materi- as most commercial design tools allow
its CLTE-XT and lower-cost CLTE-AT als. With its low dielectric constant users to enter parameters based on a
ceramic/PTFE composites with woven of 1.96 and low loss, this particularly material’s characteristics.

S P OT L I G H T O N S Y N T H E S I Z E R S
ProductTechnology
Product Trends
Synthesizers Shave
Size, Not Performance
The latest generation of compact frequency synthesizers is
matching the small size of discrete-component oscillators
while providing fast tuning speeds and low phase noise.
JACK BROWNE 1. The FST synthesizers are 3.5 x 2.5 x 0.6 in.
Technical Director
and span 80 to 4500 MHz. [Photo courtesy of
EM Research (www.emresearch.com).]
S
ize, speed, and power savings packed into a small coaxial package.
are key drivers for frequency With narrowband models spanning
synthesizers. A sign of the 80 to 4500 MHz, the sources measure
current trend in frequency just 3.5 x 2.5 x 0.6 in. (Fig. 1). As an
synthesizers is the growing example of the product line, model small size and per-
number of integrated minia- FST-4500-XX operates from 4400 to formance of the DCO
ture phase-lock-loop (PLL)/voltage-con- 4500 MHz with an external 10-MHz and DXO oscillators to provide synthe-
trolled-oscillator (VCO) combinations. reference, switching in 50 kHz steps in sized performance in a surface-mount
What were once multiple components 1 μs or less. The synthesizer exhibits package measuring just 0.6 x 0.6 in.
on a printed-circuit board (PCB) are phase noise of -85 dBc/Hz offset 10 Model MFSH495550-100 is an exam-
now in a single surface-mount device. kHz from the carrier and -110 dBc/Hz ple of the compact frequency synthesizer
Requirements for frequency syn- offset 100 kHz from the carrier. line, tuning from 4950 to 5500 MHz in
thesizers in commercial and industrial Hittite Microwave Corp. (www. 1-MHz steps with settling time of less
applications are somewhat different hittite.com) offers a series of fractional- than 1 ms. It typically draws 30 mA
than those for military applications (see N synthesizers with integrated VCOs. current from a +5-VDC supply and
this month’s supplement on specifying Model HMC764LP6CE tunes from offers phase noise of -80 dBc/Hz offset
frequency synthesizers for EW applica- 7.3 to 8.2 GHz with +15 dBm typical 10 kHz from the carrier and -106 dBc/
tions). In addition to the stricter cost output power in a 6 x 6 mm QFN Hz offset 100 kHz from the carrier. The
constraints, frequency synthesizers for surface-mount package (Fig. 2). It has synthesizer line is available in models
commercial applications are generally a settling time of 87 μs for a 100-MHz from 1 to 8 GHz.
aimed at specific operating bands, rather step. The phase noise is -116 dBc/Hz Broadband single-loop SMS series
than the broad frequency ranges of offset 100 kHz from the carrier for synthesizers from Spinnaker Micro-
electronic countermeasures (ECM) and the VCO in open-loop operation and wave, Inc. (www.spinnakermicrowave.
electronic-warfare (EW) systems. And typically -98 dBc offset 10 kHz for com) combine design simplicity with
while they must also deliver excellent fractional-N synthesizer operation. small size, covering a total frequency
stability and spectral characteristics, Synergy Microwave Corp. (www. range from 100 MHz to 26 GHz in a
they usually must operate on lower synergymwave.com) has been able to package just measuring 1.9 x 1.9 x 0.45
voltages and consume less power. shrink the size of its VCO-based fre- in. Ideal for EW and ECM applications,
The FST series of fast-switching quency synthesizers by developing its they can be specified with bandwidths
synthesizers from EM Research (www. own lines of miniature VCOs. The firm’s to one octave (such as 2 to 4 GHz). The
emresearch.com) is a good example of MFSH series of miniature frequency sources provide 500-μs switching speed
how outstanding performance can be synthesizers take advantage of the for steps from 200 kHz to 10 MHz. The

S P OT L I G H T O N S Y N T H E S I Z E R S
ProductTechnology
phase noise is typically -80 dBc/Hz offset PMYTO frequency synthesizers achieve
10 kHz from a 10-GHz carrier. 150 ms maximum switching speed at
Swedish synthesizer specialist Siv- X-band with phase noise of -100 dBc/
ers IMA AB supplies high-performance Hz offset 10 kHz from the carrier and
miniature frequency synthesizers in bands -128 dBc/Hz offset 100 kHz.
from 6 to 20 GHz. As an example, a unit Teledyne Microwave (www.teledyne-
designed for test, satcom, and digital microwave.com) has developed a com-
radios from 8 to 9 GHz measures only 75 pact VCO-based frequency synthesizer
x 50 x 15 mm. It switches in less than 1 2. Model HMC764LP6CE is a PLL/ VCO that for C-band applications from 4.4 to
ms for a 100-MHz change in frequency. tunes from 7.3 to 8.2 GHz. [Photo courtesy of 5.6 GHz. It provides 10-ms worst-case
The synthesizer delivers typical phase Hittite Microwave Corp. (www.hittite.com).] switching speed for 1-kHz steps. The
noise of -80 dBc/Hz offset 10 kHz from synthesizer has phase noise of -85 dBc/
the carrier and -100 dBc/Hz offset 100 tunes in 500-kHz steps from 3 to 6 GHz Hz offset 1 kHz from the carrier and
kHz from the carrier. with 100 ms switching speed. The phase -112 dBc/Hz offset 100 kHz from the
Micro Lambda Wireless (www. noise is -65 dBc/Hz offset 1 kHz from carrier. The frequency synthesizer mea-
microlambdawireless.com) has designed the carrier and -122 dBc/Hz offset 100 sures 6.19 x 3.91 x 0.85 in.
miniature frequency synthesizers mea- kHz from the carrier. Compact frequency synthesizers
suring just 2.5 x 2.5 x 1.9 in. based on Microsemi-RFIS (www.microsemi- from Spectrum Microwave (www.
its permanent-magnet YIG-tuned oscil- rfis.com) also offers single-loop and mul- spectrummicrowave.com) include the
lators (PMYTOs). The MLSL series of tiloop frequency synthesizers based on model 456080 for applications from 4.0
frequency synthesizers has four models PMYTOs (when low noise is required) to 4.5 GHz. It tunes in 10 MHz steps
covering 2 to 8 GHz with 3-GHz band- and VCOs (when switching speed is with 5-μs switching speed in a package
widths. Model MLSL-0306, for example, important). Operating to 18 GHz, the measuring just 3.25 x 3.00 x 0.28 in.
The phase noise is -86 dBc/Hz offset
1 kHz from the carrier and -122 dBc/Hz
offset 100 kHz from the carrier.

Mini-Circuits (www.minicircuits.
com) offers engineering services to help
customers develop their own custom
fixed-frequency and tunable-frequency
synthesizer solutions in narrowband,
medium-band, or wideband units. As

an example of the firm’s expertise in
developing miniature frequency syn-
thesizers, a 1200-to-2200-MHz DSN
series unit tunes in 10-MHz steps with

0.5-μs settling time. It measures a mere
1.25 x 1.00 x 0.20 in. with -97 dBc/Hz
• phase noise offset 1 kHz from the carrier
and -106 dBc/Hz phase noise offset 100
• kHz from the carrier.
• ! "# #" $ %& The CFS series of synthesizers from
• & "' # ! ("#) MITEQ (www.miteq.com) provide dual
• *+ , - .& outputs at 1150 MHz and a tunable range
• *+ , - of 12.46 to 13.28 GHz for frequency

upconverters and downconverters. Sup-
plied in a 5.50 x 12.35 x 1.44 in. housing,
the dual synthesizer exhibits -85 dBc/Hz

phase noise offset 1 kHz from a Ku-band
carrier and -97 dBc/Hz offset 100 kHz

from the same carrier. The phase noise is
-95 dBc/Hz offset 1 kHz from the L-band
carrier (1150 MHz) and -105 dBc/Hz
offset 100 kHz.

MICROWAVES
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Broadband low noise
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High power RF amplifiers and broadband power
amplifiers 10GHz Divide-by 13 Prescaler 850-950MHz 10W Power Amplifier 100KHz - 10GHz RF Amplifier
RF isolators and
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s,OW.OISE!MPLIlER s6OLTAGE#ONTROL/SCILLATOR
High power coaxial s0OWER!MPLIlER s0HASE,OCKED/SCILLATOR
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Wenteq Microwave Corporation
735 West Duarte Road, Suite 401, Arcadia, CA 91007
15825 Shady Grove Road, Suite 190, Rockville, MD 20850
Phone: (626) 821-9118, Fax: (626) 602-3101 Tel: (301) 880-0921, Fax: (301) 560-8007, Mobile: (240) 645-8591
Email: sales@wenteq.com, Website: www.wenteq.com
Email: sales@rfbayinc.com, Website: www.rfbayinc.com
Wenteq Microwave Corp. RF Bay, Inc.
KR Elecontronics, Inc. Sector Microwave Industries, Inc.
Polyfet RF Devices
New Product Release
50Vdc LDMOS Devices
LK141: 60W, 1GHz, 10dB

60W, 500MHz, 16dB
LK142: 120W, 500MHz, 16dB
LR941: 200W, 500MHz, 13dB
400W, 230MHz, 15dB
LY942: 600W, 88MHz, 19dB
Suitable for broad band and narrow
band applications. Usable operating
across 24-50Vdc. Sample units now
available. Please contact us for
additional details.
jerome@polyfet.com
805-484-4210
Polyfet RF Applied Radar, Inc.

MICROWAVES & RF DIRECT CONNECTION ADS
TO A D V E R TI S E I N THI S S ECTI ON, C ALL JOANNE REPPAS (201) 666-6698
Wil
Wilmanco Sector Microwave Industries, Inc.
LED Lighting Solutions Available From Panasonic

Panasonic Electronic Components provides cutting edge
technology that can give your application the perfor-
mance, reliability and quality that today’s consumers de-
mand and that is synonymous with the Panasonic brand.
Our solutions can enhance productivity, cut costs, solve
problems and protect natural resources in ways you may
have never imagined.
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piccomponentsmarketing@us.panasonic.com
www.panasonic.com/ind/led/
1-800-344-2112
Satellink, Inc. Panasonic Electronic Components
Dudley Lab
RF Amplifiers .01 to 40 GHz

+10dBm to 2,000 Watts
Hughes TWTA 1.0 to 40 GHz
Varian /CPI TWTA 1.0 to 18 GHz
MCL Klystron 12.7 to 14.5 GHz
Solid State 0.01 to 18 GHz
www.dudleylab.com/surplus.html
e-mail: hdudley@dudleylab.com
732-240-6895 NJ
Linx Technologies Dudley Lab KS Electronics

MICROWAVES & RF DIRECT CONNNECTION ADS
T O A DV E R TI SE I N THI S S ECTI ON, C ALL JOANNE REPPAS (201) 666-6698
Applied Interconnect Citel, Inc.
editor’s choice
LTE Signal-Fading Simulator Profiles Handsets
Rather than having to buy and
cable together two separate test
instruments, engineers work-
ing on fourth-generation (4G)
Long Term Evolution (LTE)
handsets can now rely on a one-
box test system for cell-phone
signal fading simulation. This
fading simulator option is integrated
New Modco MCR within the 7100 series digital-radio test
Series Ceramic set. That signal generator and analyzer
covers 70 MHz to 6 GHz continuously with resolution of 1 Hz to 3 GHz
Resonator VCO and 2 Hz above 3 GHz. To accommodate future LTE needs, the 7100 series
fading simulator supports all LTE bandwidths to 20 MHz. It supports both
These Voltage Controlled Os- LTE frequency and time division duplexing (FDD and TDD). An integrated
cillators offer exceptionally low 3GPP Rel-8 LTE-compliant physical layer and protocol stack are included.
Phase Noise in the industry The system offers a comprehensive suite of RF parametric measurements and
protocol logging and analysis. It also includes inter-Radio Access Technology
Standard one half inch square (RAT) handover support, automatic network simulation, functional testing,
package. Model MCR1270- and end-to-end IP packet data test. The 7100 series test platform also pro-
1290MC with an Input Voltage vides flexibility in allocating cells and fading taps for LTE user equipment
of +5.0V, Tuning Voltage of (UE) without the need for manual reconfiguration. Among the repeatable
test scenarios presented by the 7100 series with the fading simulator are the
0.5V to 4.5V and a Frequency emulation of dynamic environments and the realistic and accurate testing of
Range of 1270-1290MHz is multiple-input multiple-output (MIMO) scenarios. With the LTE future in
rated -122dBc @ 10khz offset. mind, the 7100 series fading simulator supports all LTE bandwidths to 20
Many other catalog models are MHz with a frequency range up to 6 GHz. The fading simulator supports all
3GPP fading profiles, allowing users to determine if their device conforms to
available and custom designs 3GPP test specifications. P&A: A typical system with two RF carriers and 2x2
can be supplied with no NRE. MIMO is approximately $100,000. The Fading Simulator (Option 101) soft-
ware is priced at $10,000.
www.modcoinc.com Aeroflex, Inc., 35 South Service Rd., P.O. Box 6022, Plainview, NY 11803-0622; (800) 835-2352,
Internet: www.aeroflex.com.
Modco, Inc.

I E E E M T T - S M AY 2 3 - 2 8 , 2 0 1 0 A N A H E I M , C A L I F O R N I A
Have you seen what WWW.IMS2010.ORG

has to offer lately?
If you haven’t been to the IMS2010 website please take a For those family and guest of attendees, please be sure to
moment to log on and view updates for the upcoming IMS2010 visit the IMS2010 hospitality suite which will be located at
symposium. The IMS2010 website is a great place to start if you the Sheraton Hotel. Only a short distance from the Anaheim
are not familiar with the symposium or local area. Here you convention center, we have created a comfortable setting
can gather general information and also learn about travel where you can meet with friends, grab a snack, check email
and lodging near the Anaheim convention center. We also and learn what the local area has to offer. There will also be
recommend that you view the technical program schedule special activities for the children.
along with learning more about who is exhibiting and how
your company can become an exhibitor. We look forward to your attendance and participation in the
coming year at IMS2010!
Don’t forget to mark your calendars for two fun-filled hours
of networking with “Microwave & RF” female colleagues
during IMS2010. There is a Women in Microwave
Come visit D O L I R UQLD
&
KHLP for IMS2010
Engineering (WIM) reception happy hour to be held Tuesday
evening at the Uva Bar located in Downtown Disney. Check the $QD
IMS program for more details.
Official Media Source

Media Partners: of the MTT Society:
May 23-28, 2010
IMS2010 I Anaheim Convention Center
infocenter
Advertiser Website, E-Mail Address Page Advertiser Website, E-Mail Address Page
A M
Advanced Switch Technology . . . . . . www.astswitch.com, email: info@astswitch.com . . . . . . . . . . . . 108 M/A-COM Technology Solutions, Inc. www.macomtech.com. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .COV 2
Aeroflex / Metelics . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . www.aeroflex-metelics.com . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 27 Marki Microwave, Inc . . . . . . . . . . . . . www.markimicrowave.com, email: info@markimicrowave.com 12
Aeroflex / Weinschel, Inc . . . . . . . . . . www.aeroflex.com/weinschel, Meca Electronics, Inc. . . . . . . . . . . . . . www.e-meca.com, email: sales@e-meca.com . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7
email: weinschel-sales@aeroflex.com . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 29 Microhard Systems, Inc. . . . . . . . . . . . www.microhardcorp.com . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 86
Agilent Technologies . . . . . . . . . . . . . www.agilent.com/find/ltetesting . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 21 Microtool . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . www.microtoolinc.com . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 101
Agilent Technologies . . . . . . . . . . . . . www.agilent.com/find/agilentmmic . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 63 Mini Circuits/Sci Components . . . . . . www.minicircuits.com . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16
Agilent Technologies . . . . . . . . . . . . . www.agilent.com/find/refresh . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 85 Mini Circuits/Sci Components . . . . . . www.minicircuits.com . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 23
Anaren Microwave . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . www.anaren.com. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 101 Mini Circuits/Sci Components . . . . . . www.minicircuits.com . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 35
Anaren Microwave . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . www.anaren.com. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .COV 4 Mini Circuits/Sci Components . . . . . . www.minicircuits.com . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 39
Anatech Electronics. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . www.anatechelectronics.com, Mini Circuits/Sci Components . . . . . . www.minicircuits.com . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 49
email: sales@anatechelectronics.com . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 25 Mini Circuits/Sci Components . . . . . . www.minicircuits.com . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 53
Antenna Research Associates . . . . . . www.ara-inc.com, email: sales@ara-inc.com. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 95 Mini Circuits/Sci Components . . . . . . www.minicircuits.com . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 55
Applied Computational Sciences. . . . www.appliedmicrowave.com. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 34 Mini Circuits/Sci Components . . . . . . www.minicircuits.com . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 59
Applied Interconnect . . . . . . . . . . . . . www.onlinecables.com , email: sales@onlinecables.com . . . . . 110 Mini Circuits/Sci Components . . . . . . www.minicircuits.com . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 67
Applied Radar, Inc. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . www.appliedradar.com Mini Circuits/Sci Components . . . . . . www.minicircuits.com . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 81
email: antennameasurement@appliedradar.com. . . . . . . . . . . . 108 Mini Circuits/Sci Components . . . . . . www.minicircuits.com . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 83
ARRA, INC . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . www.arra.com, email: sales@arra.com . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .COV 3 Mini Circuits/Sci Components . . . . . . www.minicircuits.com . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 91
AWR . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . www.awrcorp.com/mwo . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4 Mini Circuits/Sci Components . . . . . . www.minicircuits.com . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 97
B Mini Circuits/Sci Components . . . . . . www.minicircuits.com . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 99
Bowei Integrated Circuits, Inc. . . . . . www.cn-bowei.com, email: cjian@cn-bowei.com . . . . . . . . . . . . . 18 Mini Circuits/Sci Components . . . . . . www.minicircuits.com . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14-15
C Mini Circuits/Sci Components . . . . . . www.minicircuits.com . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 30-31
Carlisle Interconnect Technologies . . www.carlisleit.com . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 61 MITEQ . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . www.miteq.com, email: components@miteq.com . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1
CIAO Wireless, Inc . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . www.ciaowireless.com, email: sales@ciaowireless.com . . . . . . . . 8 MITEQ . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . www.miteq.com, email: components@miteq.com . . . . . . . . . . . . 11
Coilcraft . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . www.coilcraft.com, email: info@coilcraft.com . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10 MITEQ . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . www.miteq.com, email: components@miteq.com . . . . . . . . . . . . 71
Compex Corporation. . . . . . . . . . . . . . www.compexcorp.com, email: sales@compexcorp.com. . . . . . . . 82 Modco. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . www.modcoinc.com . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 110
Citel America Inc. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . www.citel.us . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 110 MP Associates . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . www.ims2010.org . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 111
D N
dBm, LLC. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . www.dbmcorp.com . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 74 Narda An L-3 Communications . . . . . www.nardamicrowave.com, email: nardaeast@L-3com.com . . . . 3
Delta Electronics . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . www.deltarf.com . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20 Nexyn Corporation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . www.nexyn.com . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 50
Digi-Key . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . www.digikey.com. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9 P
Dow Key Microwave . . . . . . . . . . . . . . www.dowkey.com, email:dkm@dowkey.com . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 88 Panasonic Electronic Components . . www.panasonic.com/ind/led/,
Dudley Labs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . www.dudleylab.com/surplus.html, email: piccomponentsmarketing@us.panasonic.com . . . . . . . . 109
email: hdudley@dudleylab.com. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 109 Phase Matrix . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . www.phasematrix.com, email: sales@phasematrix.com . . . . . . . 40
E Phonon Corporation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . www.phonon.com . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 70
Elcom Technologies. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . www.elcom-tech.com, email: sales@elcom-tech.com . . . . . . . . 106 Polyfet RF Devices. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . www.polyfet.com, email: jerome@polyfet.com . . . . . . . . . . . . . 108
EM Research. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . www.emresearch.com, email: sales@emresearch.com . . . . . . . 107 Programmed Test Sources . . . . . . . . . www.programmedtest.com,
EMI Filter Company . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . www.emifiltercompany.com, email: sales@programmedtest.com . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 103
email: miker@emifiltercompany.com . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 92 Pulsar Microwave Corp. . . . . . . . . . . . www.pulsarmicrowave.com,
ET Industries Inc . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . www.etiworld.com, email: sales@etiworld.com . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 89 email: sales@pulsarmicrowave.com . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 78
F R
Fairview Microwave . . . . . . . . . . . . . . www.fairviewmicrowave.com, Renaissance Electronics . . . . . . . . . . . www.rec-usa.com, email: sales@rec-usa.com . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 47
email: sales@fairviewmicrowave.com . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 45 RF Bay . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . www.rfbayinc.com, email: sales@rfbayinc.com . . . . . . . . . . . . . 108
G RF Depot . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . www.rfdepot.com . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17
Giga-tronics . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . www.gigatronics.com . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 93 RFMD . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . www.rfmd.com . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 32
H RFMW Ltd. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . www.rfmw.com . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6
Harting North America. . . . . . . . . . . . www.HARTING-usa.com, www.fci.com. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 62 RLC Electronics. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . www.rlcelectronics.com . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . S3
Herley CTI. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . www.herley.com, email: sales@herley-cti.com . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19 Rohde & Schwarz Inc. . . . . . . . . . . . . . www.rs-us.net/zva003 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 68-69
Herotek Inc. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . www.herotek.com, email: sales@herotek.com . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 52 S
Hittite Microwave Corporation . . . . . www.hittite.com . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 75 Satellink. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . www.satellink.com . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 109
Hittite Microwave Corporation . . . . . www.hittite.com . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 77 Sector Microwaves Inc Inc . . . . . . . . . www.sectormicrowave.com . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 108
Hittite Microwave Corporation . . . . . www.hittite.com . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 79 Sector Microwaves Inc Inc . . . . . . . . . www.sectormicrowave.com . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 109
Huber + Suhner . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . www.hubersuhner.com, email: info@hubersuhner.com . . . . . . . 51 Spectrum Electrotechnik . . . . . . . . . . www.spectrum-et.com, email: sales@spectrum-et.com . . . . . . . 41
I Synergy Microwave . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . www.synergymwave.com, email: sales@synergymwave.com . . 43
Insulated Wire, Inc. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . www.iw-microwave.com, email: sales@iw-microwave.com . . . . 37 Synergy Microwave . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . www.synergymwave.com, email: sales@synergymwave.com . . 64
ITT Industries . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . www.ittmicrowave.com . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 102 Synergy Microwave . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . www.synergymwave.com, email: sales@synergymwave.com . . 73
J T
JFW Industries, Inc. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . www.jfwindustries.com, email: sales@jfwindustries.com . . . . . . 13 Technical Research and Manufacturing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 36
TTE Incorporated . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . www.tte.com . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 60
K
KR Electronics . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . www.krfilters.com, email: sales@krfilters.com . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 108 V
Krytar, Inc. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . www.krytar.com, email: sales@krytar.com . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 46 VMR Electronics LLC . . . . . . . . . . . . . . www.vmrelectronics.com, email: sales@vmrelectronics.com . . . . 2
KS Electronics. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . www.kselectronics.com. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 109 W
L Wenteq Microwave Corporation . . . . www.wenteq.com, email: sales@wenteq.com . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 108
Linear Technology Corporation . . . . . www.linear.com/554x . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 56 Wilmanco . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . www.wilmanco.com, email: williams@wilmanco.com. . . . . . . . 109
Linx Technologies . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . www.linxtechnologies.com . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 18
Linx Technologies . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . www.linxtechnologies.com . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 109
LPKF CAD/CAM. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . www.lpfkusa.com . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 87 *Domestic Edition only **International Edition only This index is provided as an additional service by the publisher,
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