13 May 2011

Avago expands family of smallest RF amplifiers

Avago Technologies has added to its family of what it claims are the industry’s smallest RF amplifiers with the new VMMK-3xxx series, which leverages the firm’s WaferCap chip-scale packaging (CSP) technology to offer a footprint of just 1.0mm by 0.5mm by 0.25mm.

The devices take up 5% of the volume and use only 10% of the board area of solutions using a standard SOT-343 package, the firm reckons. In some cases, the miniature amplifiers can effectively reduce PCB area by more than 50%.

The VMMK-3xxx family supports full surface-mount capability, requiring no special tooling for assembly. With miniature 0402 package dimensions, the VMMK-3xxx amplifiers have all I/Os routed to the backside of the device wafer through via-holes, resulting in RF transitions suffering almost no signal loss and minimal parasitics, a significant improvement over conventional plastic packages where bond-wires exhibit substantial parasitics that limit the operating frequency. The amplifier family provides high gain, a high third-order intercept point (IP3) for good linearity, low noise figure (NF) and integrated 50-ohm input and output matching networks to simplify system design.

The ultra-small package size and fully matched surface-mount design are optimized for 500MHz to 12GHz frequencies, suiting a variety of radio architectures and space-constrained applications.

The amplifiers bring new functionality to Avago’s existing VMMK-1xxx and VMMK-2xxx families, including a positive gain slope low-noise amplifier (LNA), a wideband LNA, a variable gain amplifier (VGA), and four directional detectors. The VMMK-3xxx LNAs and VGA can be used in UWB, WLAN, WiMAX, generic IF amp and gain block applications, while the new detectors can be used in base-stations, point-to-point radios and generic power control loop detectors, as well as for monitoring power amplifier output.

The VMMK-3xxx family includes:

• VMMK-3503: 0.5–18GHz VGA – This broadband, wide-dynamic-range VGA features 12dB maximum gain, 1.5dB NF, 8dBm IIP3 and 23dB gain control range, and it consumes only 300mW.

• VMMK-3603: 1–6GHz positive gain slope LNA – This high-gain, self-biasing LNA features 17dB gain, 1.5dB NF and good linearity of 25dBm OIP3, and it consumes only 180mW. With its positive gain slope, the LNA enables flat overall system gain.

• VMMK-3803: 3–11GHz LNA – This high-gain, self-biasing LNA features 20dB flat gain, 1.5dB NF and good linearity of 0.5dBm IIP3, and it consumes only 60mW.

• VMMK-3113: 2–6GHz directional detector – This detector features 0.25dB insertion, greater than 45dB dynamic range, low input and output return losses (< 20dB) and 10dB directivity.

• VMMK-3213: 6–18GHz directional detector – This detector features 0.4dB insertion, greater than 40dB dynamic range, low input and output return losses (< 20dB) and 15dB directivity.

• VMMK-3313: 15–33GHz directional detector – This detector features 0.5dB insertion, greater than 37dB dynamic range, low input and output return losses (< 20dB) and 12dB directivity.

• VMMK-3413: 25–45 GHz directional detector – This detector features 0.8dB insertion, greater than 35dB dynamic range, low input and output return losses (< 20dB) and 10dB directivity.

All directional detectors require 1.5V with 0.18mA for DC biasing.

The VMMK-3xxx amplifiers are priced from $2 each in 1000-piece quantities.

Tags: Avago RF amplifiers

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