1120 Mw Menlo Micro Mm5130 Rf Switch Promo 5fb2db7c562c0

World’s Highest Power-Density RF Switch Hits Volume Production

Nov. 18, 2020

The MM5130, with 4 channels, 25-W power handling, and DC-to-26-GHz operation in a tiny SMT package, brings major improvements to insertion loss, power handling, and linearity.

David Maliniak

Related To: Menlo Microsystems

Menlo Microsystems, Inc. (aka Menlo Micro), which claims its fame on the back of its “Ideal Switch” MEMS-based switching technology, is now ready to begin production of its MM5130, touted as the first high-performance RF switch manufactured with solid-state switching technology.

The MM5130 is designed to handle 25 W with ultra-low losses, in a miniaturized wafer-level chip-scale package (WL-CSP). Historically, this level of performance has been reserved for large RF mechanical relays, which have major drawbacks. With its Ideal Switch technology, Menlo Micro says it has eliminated the compromises that engineers have had to make when selecting between RF mechanical relays and solid-state switches. The MM5130 offers the power handling and RF performance of an electromechanical relay (see the table), with the size, reliability, and speed of a solid-state switch.

Comparison of performance specifications between Menlo Micro's MM5130 MEMS-based RF switch and an electromechanical RF relay.

These improvements make the MM5130 switch well suited for a multitude of applications including low-loss switched filter banks, tunable filters, step attenuators, and even beamsteering antennas for a variety of radio architectures in both commercial and military communications networks. The high channel density and low losses also make the MM5130 a match for ultra-compact switch matrices for test and measurement applications.

Menlo Micro has completed the 30-month process of transferring and qualifying its processes from a 4” research fab to an 8”, high-volume manufacturing line. This allows the company to significantly increase its capacity to millions of units per month in 2021.

Menlo Micro, www.menlomicro.com

About the Author

David Maliniak | Executive Editor, Microwaves & RF

I am Executive Editor of Microwaves & RF, an all-digital publication that broadly covers all aspects of wireless communications. More particularly, we're keeping a close eye on technologies in the consumer-oriented 5G, 6G, IoT, M2M, and V2X markets, in which much of the wireless market's growth will occur in this decade and beyond. I work with a great team of editors to provide engineers, developers, and technical managers with interesting and useful articles and videos on a regular basis. Check out our free newsletters to see the latest content.

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About me:

In his long career in the B2B electronics-industry media, David Maliniak has held editorial roles as both generalist and specialist. As Components Editor and, later, as Editor in Chief of EE Product News, David gained breadth of experience in covering the industry at large. In serving as EDA/Test and Measurement Technology Editor at Electronic Design, he developed deep insight into those complex areas of technology. Most recently, David worked in technical marketing communications at Teledyne LeCroy, leaving to rejoin the EOEM B2B publishing world in January 2020. David earned a B.A. in journalism at New York University.