1. What made you select Smiths Interconnect TSX Series as a product to feature?

Smiths Interconnect’s new TSX Series of DC to 50 GHz Chip Attenuators push the boundaries of size, weight, and power in a cost-effective, easy-to-implement surface mount solution.

2. What are the key features and specifications of the TSX Series?

Available in 0604 package sizes with values from 1 – 10, 15, and 20 dB, the TSX Series enables excellent broadband RF performance to 50 GHz–meaning power handling is increased while reducing size.

3. What are the common markets and applications of the TSX Series?

Smiths Interconnect’s TSX Series addresses critical factors in applications surrounding satellite communications, radar, instrumentation, and 5G.

About Paul Timberlake

Paul Timberlake is a Supplier Business Manager at RFMW and holds a Higher National Diploma (HND) in RF and Electronic Engineering. With 25 years of industry experience, Paul enjoys the fast-paced and exciting challenges of technological advancements in RF.

NXP recently launched a new portfolio of discrete Gallium Nitride (GaN) transistors to expand 5G Massive MIMO coverage. The transistors enable easy deployment of 5G Massive MIMO in urban and suburban areas.

NXP’s proprietary RF GaN technology is manufactured in their new Chandler (Arizona) fab and available through RFMW, their specialist RF distributor. This launch provides a GaN portfolio covering the 5G cellular bands between 2.3 and 4.0GHz.

A key benefit is that NXP’s GaN technology has a low-memory effect designed to maximizse linearity and reduce Digital Pre-Distortion (DPD) complexity.

The portfolio covers 48V driver stages, allowing a single amplifier supply voltage for the lineup. Engineers can design high-efficiency power amplifiers with optimum power consumption, size, and weight for easier deployment.

Portfolio

The portfolio covers both driver and final stage discrete GaN transistors suitable for 10 Watt 32T32R and 5 Watt 64T64R Massive MIMO antennas. Most transistors share the same DFN 7 x 6.5 package.

Typical Lineup

A typical lineup for 2.6GHz is the A5G26S008N with 19dB of gain, driving the A5G26H110N for a 15 Watt average output power. This provides a cost-effective lineup for a 32T32R Massive MIMO 5G antenna.
 

 

Samples and Evaluation Boards

Samples of the 5G Discrete Massive MIMO transistors are available now from RFMW’s sample program for both 32T32R and 64T64R antenna designs. Reference circuit evaluation boards are also available to order for the following frequency bands:

Please contact your local RFMW field sales engineer or contact us here for further information.

About Tim Daniels

Tim Daniels is a Supplier Business Manager at RFMW specializing in transistor and MMIC technologies. With over 20 years of RF industry experience, Tim is a chartered engineer that holds a master’s degree in electronics innovation and a bachelor’s degree in electronics with communications. His expertise enables him to provide comprehensive design recommendations and technical support for RFMW’s customers. Tim enjoys working with engineers from around the globe and is eager to find innovative solutions to new challenges.

1. What made you select the Ampleon ART2K0 as a product to feature?

As the highest power, 2 Kilowatt flagship of Ampleon’s Advanced Rugged Technology series, the ART2K0 is ideal for many high-power industrial and broadcast designs for its ruggedness. These devices are the “Flux Capacitors” of the RF Power World!

2. What are the key features and specifications of the ART2K0?

Tested to 65:1 VSWR, Ampleon’s ART2K0 is suitable for rugged applications and can deliver up to 2KW of RF Power from HF to UHF.

3. What are the common markets and applications of the Ampleon ART2K0?

The ART2K0 is an ideal solution for all high-power RF from HF to UHF. Popular applications include industrial lasers and plasma generators. Additionally, the ART2K0 is a cost-effective, high power RF solution for HF communications amplifiers, FM radio broadcast, digital audio broadcast (DAB), and VHF television (DVB-T) transmitters. With a relatively low output capacitance, the ART2K0 also supports use in low UHF ranges for particle accelerator amplifiers.

About Tim Daniels

Tim Daniels is a Supplier Business Manager at RFMW specializing in transistor and MMIC technologies. With over 20 years of RF industry experience, Tim is a chartered engineer that holds a master’s degree in electronics innovation and a bachelor’s degree in electronics with communications. His expertise enables him to provide comprehensive design recommendations and technical support for RFMW’s customers. Tim enjoys working with engineers from around the globe and is eager to find innovative solutions to new challenges.

RFMW, a specialized distributor of RF and microwave products, today announced the acquisition of Spantech Technology Solutions S.L.U. Spantech represents industry-leading manufacturers of RF, microwave, millimeter-wave components, and satellite communication equipment in Spain and Portugal. The agreement fortifies RFMW’s international presence and enhances their prominent position as a global and technically competent sales and marketing organization.

“We are excited about this agreement with RFMW,” comments Michael Chadwick, Director of Spantech Microwave Technology. “RFMW’s products directly align with our focus and customer base. We are confident that RFMW’s acquisition of Spantech will provide customers with best-in-class solutions and support. We are particularly excited to become a part of the RFMW Family and we look forward to working with our new global colleagues.”

“We appreciate Spantech’s closely aligned mission and philosophy with RFMW’s,” states Mike Carroll, Vice President of Global Sales at RFMW, “Spantech’s excellent customer relationships will further enhance RFMW’s international footprint and strengthen our line card. We are confident that our customers and suppliers will benefit from the acquisition, and we look forward to working with our new Spanish team.”

About Spantech Technology Solutions S.L.U.

Since 1992, Spantech Technology Solutions S.L.U has provided expert-level technical support and logistics management in the RF & MW industry. Spantech represents world-leading manufacturers of RF, microwave, millimeter-wave components, and satellite communication equipment in Spain and Portugal. Spantech’s services efficiently, economically, and professionally meet customer needs in the continuously evolving environment of the RF & MW industry.

RFMW and Renesas will be attending IMS 2022 in Denver from June 21-23.  Both companies will be promoting Renesas’:

• Sub-6 RF front end solutions
• mmWave and beamforming solutions
• Timing and synchronization products for radio cards and backhaul

Renesas Variable Gain Amplifiers:

Renesas offers digitally controlled intermediate frequency (IF) and radio frequency (RF) variable gain amplifiers (VGA) with FlatNoise™ technology, an innovative technology where noise does not degrade as gain is reduced. Renesas’ low-noise devices improve quality-of-service (QoS) and ease signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) requirements of the downstream data converter to reduce system cost.

The F0453B is an integrated dual-path RF front-end consisting of an RF switch and two gain stages with 6dB gain control used in the analog front-end receiver of an Active Antenna System (AAS). The F0453B supports frequencies from 3300MHz to 4000MHz.

The F0453B provides 34.5dB gain with +23dBm OIP3, +15dBm output P1dB, and 1.35dB noise figure at 3500MHz. Gain is reduced 6dB in a single step with a maximum settling time of 31ns. The device uses a single 3.3V supply and 130mA of IDD.

The F0453B is offered in a 5 x 5 x 0.8 mm, 32-LGA package with 50Ω input and output amplifier impedances for ease of integration into the signal path.

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Renesas RF Amplifiers:

Renesas offers RF amplifiers with a variety of gain, noise figures, and linearity features in either differential or single-ended input impedances. The products feature innovative Zero-Distortion™ technology, enabling high output IP3 with very low current consumption – setting them apart from simple gain block amplifiers.

In addition, Renesas’ RF amplifiers feature built-in broadband baluns to support wide-band applications with differential inputs and outputs. The products are designed for high-reliability operation, using a SiGe amplifier die together with an integrated passive device (IPD) die and proven high-volume QFN packaging.

Renesas F0424 is a 600MHz to 5000MHz SiGe high-gain broadband RF amplifier. The combination of low noise figure (NF) and high linearity performance allows the device to be used in both receiver and transmitter applications.

It is designed to operate with a single 5V or 3.3V power supply using a nominal 70mA of ICC. With a supply voltage of 5V, the F0424 provides 17.3dB gain with +40dBm OIP3 and 2.3dB noise figure at 2600MHz. This device is packaged in a 2 × 2 mm, 8-DFN with 50Ω single-ended RF input and output impedances for ease of integration into the signal-path.

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Renesas 5G mmWave Beamformers

Renesas’ latest dual polarization 5G mmWave devices are optimized for 2×2 antenna architecture for 5G and broadband wireless applications with best-in-class performance at n257, n258, and 261 bands. The highly integrated F5288 and F5268 transmit/receive (8T8R) chipsets sit on a small 5.1 x 5.1 mm BGA package and deliver the industry’s highest Tx output power capability in silicon – more than 15.5 dBm linear output power per channel.

The new F52x8 beamformer ICs are complemented by the highly integrated F5728 mmWave up/down converter addressing the 24.25 to 29.5 GHz spectrum. Now Renesas enables even more cost efficient radio design with extended signal reach for wireless infrastructure systems including wide area, small cell and macro base stations, as well as CPE, FWA access points, and other applications.

Key Features of Renesas’ 5G mmWave Beamformer Portfolio:

• 26.5 – 29.5 GHz (F5288) and 24.25 – 27.5GHz (F5268) operation
• Dynamic Array Power™ technology for graceful scaling of output power with high efficiency
• ArraySense™ technology with comprehensive on-chip sensor network to monitor IC performance in array operation and apply critical corrections in real-time
• RapidBeam™ advanced digital control technology enables simultaneous synchronous and asynchronous control of several beamformer ICs for extremely fast beam steering operations
• Advanced temperature compensation minimizes RF performance degradation with varying temperatures
• 360° phase control range with true 6-bit resolution and up to 31.5dB gain control with 0.5dB or 0.25dB steps

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Renesas Satcom/Radar Beamformers and Low Noise Amplifiers (LNAs)

Renesas Satcom/Radar portfolio consists of a family of 2nd generation transmit/receive ICs and LNAs supporting the three popular frequency bands of Ku-Satcom, K/Ka-Satcom and Ku/CDL for satellite communications, point-to-point terrestrial communications and radar applications. These ICs maximize  antenna array performance and power efficiency while also simplifying physical implementation. The IC physical footprints are optimized for integration with a 2×2 sub-array of dual-polarized elements having λ/2 spacing. State-of-the-art built-in power management features and excellent gain/phase orthogonality and channel-to-channel isolation greatly reduce the thermal management and calibration requirements relative to other solutions, thereby enabling the lowest overall solution cost.

Tx beamformers include F6521, F6522, and F6513 ICs covering the Ku- and Ka- Satcom uplink (Tx) frequency bands of LEO/MEO/GEO constellations and the Ku radar and Ku CDL bands. For downlink (Rx), the complementary part family consists of F6121, F6212/F6122 (module/standalone BFIC), and F6123 for Ku, K/Ka, and Ku/CDL bands, respectively. Renesas Rx beamformers may be paired with the F6921, F6922, and F6923 Dual-channel Low Noise Amplifiers to provide the highest possible G/T with the lowest system power consumption.

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Renesas’ Range of RF Switches:

Renesas offers SPDT, SP4T and SP5T RF switches with Kz constant impedance technology, very low insertion loss, and high input IP3 performance. High-isolation switches feature wide frequency bandwidth and an extended operating temperature range for high-reliability applications. In addition, Renesas RF switches utilize advanced RF silicon semiconductor technology offering advantages over other technologies such as GaAs:

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RF Synthesizers By Renesas:

RF synthesizers generate a wide range of high frequencies from a single, typically lower, reference frequency with an internal PLL. The output frequency is controlled by accessing the digital registers in the device through an SPI interface. The output frequency is generated by a fractional or integer ratio relative to the input signal.

Renesas offers very low phase noise, low spurious RF synthesizers that address the challenges of frequency generation for high-performance mixers, modulators, and demodulators in RF board designs. The RF synthesizers are also used to directly provide a clock reference to high-speed RF converters (ADC/DAC). The output frequency range incorporates low MHz to 18GHz.

The devices feature an integrated voltage-controlled oscillator (VCO) with a large tuning range capable of providing multi-band local oscillator (LO) frequency synthesis, limiting the need for multiple narrow band RF synthesizers. This reduces the bill of materials and the design complexity, lowering the cost of developing radio frequency products. They provide solutions that address the challenges of frequency generation for high-performance mixers and demodulators in RF board designs.

The 8V97003 is a high-performance wideband microwave Synthesizer / Phase Lock Loop (PLL) that generates output frequencies up to 18GHz from an integrated Voltage Controlled Oscillator (VCO) offering an octave of frequency tuning range. The device offers a high-performance 32-bit fractional feedback divider and an output divider to allow users to fully benefit from the wideband characteristics of the VCO. The device’s figure of merit (FOM) of -236dBc/Hz and its excellent VCO performance allow for very low phase noise and RMS phase jitter. The 8V97003 offers a very low output-to-output phase skew drift of <10° across all operating conditions and frequencies, reducing radio path recalibration occurrences in beamforming applications, such as 5G radio card massive MIMO systems.

The output drivers have programmable output power settings and can deliver high single-ended output power up of +12dBm at 8GHz, and +4dBm at 18GHz, when using inductively loaded output terminations (double termination). When the outputs are resistively loaded, the output drivers can deliver a single-ended output power of +9.5dBm at 8GHz, and up to -2.5dBm at 12GHz. The output power can be further increased when using differential outputs and measuring the output power differentially. The 8V97003 relies on a single 3.3V power supply and offers low noise integrated LDOs for excellent power supply noise immunity.

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