CML Microcircuits, an innovator and provider of low-power semiconductors for global wireless and wireline communications markets, is targeting its new wideband RF I/Q modulator at the designers of cellular Picocell/Nanocell systems, Satellite communications, broadband wireless access systems (WiMAX), microwave link transmitters (including ODFM/COFDM) and any other wideband wireless infrastructure systems requiring high performance I/Q modulation.
The new CMX993W is a highly integrated wideband quadrature modulator, specifically tailored to offer 30 MHz to 1 GHz operation with excellent wideband noise performance across multiple modulations and bandwidths. The quadrature modulator provides translation from baseband I/Q signals to a modulated RF signal; the wideband inputs (up to 100 MHz) can be driven single-ended or differentially for optimum performance. The CMX993W also touts two integrated and matched double-balanced mixers, driven from a buffered, quadrature, split local oscillator. The ‘LO’ frequency is divided by either 2 or 4, with the mixers forming an I/Q vector modulator with programmable gain stages (offering a desirable 30 dB of gain control in 2.5 dB step increments).
Many additional features are included such as gain control, uncommitted differential amplifiers, a digital control interface and an SPI compatible interface (for baseband devices of differing voltages). Advanced power management of individual internal blocks is also offered, giving optimum system performance under all conditions.
The CMX993W is available now, operates at 3.3 V (1.8 V I/O) and comes in a 48-pin VQFN package. For designers wishing to experiment with the product in their designs, an evaluation kit (EV9930W) is available directly from CML.