5 February 2015

Peregrine extends RF SOI switch range to 40GHz

Peregrine Semiconductor Corp of San Diego, CA, USA - a fabless provider of radio-frequency integrated circuits (RFICs) based on silicon-on-insulator (SOI) - has introduced the UltraCMOS PE42524, which is claimed to be the first RF SOI switch to operate up to 40GHz, significantly extending the firm's high-frequency portfolio into frequencies previously dominated by gallium arsenide (GaAs) technology.

Peregrine says that the PE42524 features high reliability and performance advantages in linearity, isolation, settling time and ESD protection, making the switch suitable for test & measurement, microwave backhaul, radar and military communications devices.

"UltraCMOS technology enables our high-frequency components, such as the PE42524, to reach performance levels previously considered unattainable in RF SOI," says senior marketing manager Kinana Hussain.

Peregrine's high-frequency switch portfolio, which includes 13GHz, 18GHz, 26.5GHz and now 40GHz products, is manufactured on the firm's UltraCMOS technology, a patented variation of SOI technology on a sapphire substrate. The sapphire substrate offers several key benefits significant to high-frequency design, says Peregrine. Sapphire has a loss tangent that is 10 times better than bulk CMOS and three times better than GaAs, the firm reckons. As an ultra-high-resistivity substrate, sapphire provides high isolation and minimizes parasitic capacitances. The sapphire substrate eliminates many substrate-coupling effects, common in silicon-based substrates, offering RF system engineers exceptional levels of linearity and power handling performance.

The PE42524 is a single-pole double-throw (SPDT) RF switch die that supports a wide frequency range from 10MHz to 40GHz, and delivers high port-to-port isolation (47dB), low insertion loss (2.2dB at 30GHz) and high linearity (50dBm IIP3 at 13.5GHz). It also has a fast switching time of 225ns, a fast settling time of 840ns, and a high ESD rating of 2000V HBM on all pins. Unlike GaAs solutions, says Peregrine, no blocking capacitors are required if DC voltage is not present on the RF ports. The PE42524 is available as a flip-chip die with 500μm bump pitch, eliminating high-frequency performance variations due to bond wire length variances.

Samples, evaluation kits and volume-production parts are available now. Offered as an RoHS-compliant, flip-chip die, the PE42524 is $40 each for 1000-quantity orders and $32.44 for 5000-quantity orders.

Tags: Peregrine CMOS SOI RF switches

Visit: www.psemi.com/products/rf-switches/pe42524