25 May 2015

Qorvo's new SOI components enhance high-performance broadband communications systems

At the 2015 IEEE MTT-S International Microwave Symposium (IMS) in Phoenix, Arizona (16-22 May), Qorvo Inc of Greensboro, NC and Hillsboro, OR, USA (a provider of RF solutions for mobile, infrastructure and aerospace/defense applications) launched high-performance silicon-on-insulator (SOI) devices suitable for broadband communications systems. The highly integrated components are said to significantly reduce external components while lowering cost, power consumption and weight in wireless infrastructure, test & measurement, and defense & aerospace applications.

"With exceptional linearity, robust power handling, and no external components, this portfolio is already in demand, even in the sampling stage," says Sumit Tomar, general manager of Qorvo's Wireless Infrastructure business unit.

Qorvo now offers the following RF switches, temperature compensating attenuator (TCA), digital step attenuators (DSA), and a programmable array of capacitors (PAC):

• The RFSW60x2 family of 5-6000MHz multi-throw switches features what is claimed to be an industry-leading combination of insertion loss, linearity and isolation. With three-to-six throws, it comes in a 2mm x 2mm QFN package. Qorvo also launched a high-isolation (60dB) SOI broadband switch, RFSW6024 (requiring no external blocking capacitors), which is landing major design wins at cellular base-station manufacturers, says Qorvo.

• The RFSA4033 is a new 5-6000MHz analog TCA that features what is claimed to be exceptional linearity over its entire gain control range. The TCA offsets the gain reduction of an RF lineup over temperature without the need for closed-loop feedback. Eight selectable scaled attenuation slopes and eight selectable attenuation values at 25°C create a total combination of 64 possible temperature coefficients, making it a flexible solution for RF lineups.

• Several new 5-6000MHz high-performance DSAs, RFSA3xxx, are available with four- to seven-bit controls and a novel overshoot-free switching architecture. This design eliminates troublesome transient glitches when switching between attenuation states. The DSAs allow up to eight devices to operate from a single controller.

• The RFAC3612, a 6-bit, 64-state PAC in a 2mm x 2.5mm, 10-pin package for tunable RF applications, offers high power handling, high Q and what is claimed to be excellent linearity, making it a suitable component for tunable RF phase shifters, filters, amplifier matching networks and antenna-tuning networks.

The new components also feature ESD protection and low DC power, suitable for broadband high-performance communications systems. Production samples are available through local Qorvo sales channels.

Tags: Qorvo Attenuators

Visit: www.qorvo.com