April 2008 Eight-Channel ADCs Cut Wireless Power Needs Multichannel wireless applications require a generous complement of signal-processing components. To save space and power in such systems, Texas Instruments has packed a line of eight-channel analogto- digital converters (ADCs) in tiny 9 x 9 mm 64-lead QFN-64 housings. The ADS528x line of data converters offers as much as 12-b resolution at sampling rates to 65 MSamples/s with industry-low power consumption. The ADS528x family includes ... — Jack Browne March 90-nm CMOS Module Advances Mobile WiMAX By leveraging 90-nm CMOS technology, a 15-x-15-mm RF module is able to integrate an RF integrated circuit (RF IC), antenna switches, power amplifier, filters, and oscillator circuit. In doing so, it promises to reduce the form factor of mobile WiMAX devices. The 94-pin MB86K71 operates from three voltages: 1.2, 2.925, and 3.3 V. It covers the 2.496-to-2.69-GHz band. Bandwidth is 5 and 10 MHz. For wireless access, the module relies on 512/1024 Fast Fourier Transform... — Nancy Friedrich February Probe Station Reliably Handles 300-mm Wafers At 45 nm and below, testing geometries must confront many problems related to wafer-level measurements. Front-end processes and equipment must be upgraded to handle new process materials, lower operating voltages, and increasingly complex integrated-circuit (IC) designs. A major investment also must be made at the back end in order for more advanced probing stations to handle low-noise environments, small pad probing, wide-range temperature testing, internal node probing, and multi-site... — Nancy Friedrich February RF Semiconductors Take A Variety Of Forms At the roots of almost all of today’s electronic devices lie semiconductors. These integrated circuits (ICs) stem from a variety of semiconductor technologies, which have evolved to satisfy requirements like lower power, less noise, more broadband coverage, or simply the need to squeeze higher integration into smaller, cheaper packages. In reaction to these trends, high-frequency engineers have found new ways to leverage gallium arsenide (GaAs), gallium nitride ... — Nancy Friedrich February GaN Devices Arm Distributed Amplifier Broadband, high-efficiency power amplifiers serve a wide range of military applications in present and future communications and navigation systems. But amplifier designers are limited in performance by the active devices available to them. Fortunately, the growing availability of wide-bandgap semiconductor devices, such as silicon carbide (SiC) and gallium nitride (GaN) transistors, is clearing the way for broadband, high-efficiency power amplifiers... — Anthony Pavio , et al. January 2008 Tracking Advances In Probing Mixed-Mode RF Circuitry Refinements in both the measurement probes and the calibration standard structures used with them makes it possible to perform more accurate microwave VNA S-parameter measurements on differential devices. Larry Dangremond Senior Product Manager For Probes and Signals Cascade Microtech, Inc., 2430 NW 206th Ave., Beaverton, OR 97006; (503) 601-1000, FAX: (503) 601-1002, Internet: ... — Larry Dangremond January 2008 High-Power RF Semiconductor Market To Approach $1 Billion By 2012 NEW YORK, NY — The high-power RF semiconductor market is expected to approach $1 billion USD by 2012 according to a new research study from ABI Research. At present, the market is driven by a number of well-established transistor devices, such as silicon laterally diffused metal-oxide-semiconductor (LDMOS) devices, and several emerging RF power technologies, such as silicon-carbide (SiC) and gallium-nitride (GaN) devices. In order to understand the needs of RF... — Jack Browne January 2008 GPS And Galileo RF IC Offers 1.4 dB Cascaded Noise BECAUSE THE BASEBAND FUNCTIONALITY is already available, all that is needed for a complete Global Positioning System (GPS) receiver is often an additional GPS radio-frequency integrated circuit (RF IC). The MAX2769E/W, for example, is a global-navigation-satellite-system (GNSS) receiver for GPS (L1 C/A code and P-code), WAAS, EGNOS, Galileo, and GLONASS navigation satellite systems. This RFIC provides a total cascaded noise figure of 1.4 dB and is designed for... — Nancy Friedrich December 2007 Optimizing MMICs For Encapsulated Packages Traditionally, monolithic microwave integrated circuits (MMICs) have been designed for function and performance, but without much forethought for package options. Packages were often developed after the circuit, and this "second-thought" approach would result in loss of circuit performance. A more practical approach is to perform accurate design of high-frequency MMICs for the package itself, in particular, for fully encapsulated packages. By... — Matthew R. Coutant , et al. December 2007 LDMOS Devices Push 1 kW Pulsed Power Jack Browne Technical Director Power amplification is criticalX to a wide range of applicationsX in industrial, medical,X military, and scientificX applications at frequenciesX through 450 MHz. For peakX power levels to 1 kW, usually multipleX transistors and a power combiner areX required. But with recent additions to aX line of N-channel enhancement-mode laterallyX diffused metal-oxide-semiconductorX (LDMOS) transistors, FreescaleX ... — Jack Browne November 2007 Designing MMIC Distributed Amplifiers Distributed amplifiers offer moderate to high gain over broad frequency ranges. They have been designed with transmission lines as input and output feeds for some time. An early paper (1948) by Bill Packard (co-founder of Hewlett-Packard Co.) even showed how to use vacuum tubes for amplification in a distributed design.1 As GaAs monolithic-microwave-integrated-circuit (MMIC) technology developed and different types of amplifiers were fabricated ... — John E. Penn November 2007 Developing Designs For CMOS Power Amplifiers Widespread adoption of wireless technology has created market demands for highly integrated circuits, such as a transmitter, receiver, and frequency synthesizer on a single chip. Silicon CMOS technology has made such integration possible with the exception of the power amplifier (PA), which is still typically implemented in non-CMOS technologies. Ideally, silicon CMOS PAs can be developed for tight integration with other wireless building blocks.... — Louis Fan Fei November 2007 Surveying Solutions For UMTS Handset Designs Third-generation (3G) multimode wireless communications promise mobile multiedia services as a result of enhanced data rates. For example, High Speed Packet Access (HSPA) technology is providing evolutionary performance improvements through Universal Mobile Telecommunications Systems (UMTS) networks. High Speed Downlink Packet Access (HSDPA) is delivering faster downlink speeds and user data throughput of 1 Mb/s while High Speed Uplink Packet Access (HSUPA) is paving the... — Steve Egolf , et al. November 8, 2007 Nitronex Qualifies New Wafer Fab — Jack Browne November 8, 2007 Hittite Publishes Selection Guide — Jack Browne November 8, 2007 November 8, 2007 Newsletter Software Helps Solve Measurement Problems, Renaissance Reports MEMS Switch Matrix, Report Reveals WiMAX Growth, Nitronex Qualifies New Wafer Fab, Hittite Publishes Selection Guide, Vanguard Microwave Solutions Offers Couplers, Times Microwave Systems Shows Capabilities — Jack Browne October 12, 2007 October 11, 2007 Newsletter Unleashing Microwaves In Munich, Avago Announces UMTS Duplexers In Munich, Mimix Broadband Unveils MMIC Amp In Munich, Agilent's $13 Million Fuels GED, Alereon UWB Platform Certified by WiMedia Alliance, AWR Adds NXP Large-Signal LDMOS Models, Report Sees Growth Of Dynamic Spectrum Access — Jack Browne October 2007 Digital VGAs Simplify And Shrink Wireless Transceivers Signal amplification is a key function in high-frequency radios. Many newer wireless-communications systems rely on maintaining stable amplitude within the radio's downconversion circuitry even when faced with a wide range of input signal levels. Because of this, the variable gain amplifier (VGA) has become an essential building block in many wireless radio transceivers. Traditional VGAs have varied the DC voltage to set the amplifier's gain, although additional circuitry and ... — Richard Houlihan October 9, 2007 Avago Announces UMTS Duplexers In Munich — Jack Browne October 9, 2007 Mimix Broadband Unveils MMIC Amp In Munic — Jack Browne |
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