Peregrine Semiconductor Corp., a supplier of high performance RF CMOS and mixed-signal communications ICs, released the latest in the new UltraCMOS™ Digital Step Attenuator (DSA) 50Ω series. Building on their high-performance predecessors, along with direct and latched parallel interface logic, these new HaRP™-enhanced devices also offer highly flexible serial programmability with attenuation options covering a 7.75 (PE43501) and 15.75 dB (PE43601) attenuation range in 0.25 dB steps.
The PE43501 and PE43601 DSAs offer best-in-class linearity, outstanding attenuation accuracy and low Insertion Loss (IL). As with all UltraCMOS silicon-on-sapphire RFICs, there is no gate lag nor phase drift providing exceptionally fast settling time, making them ideal for next generation wireless protocols such as LTE, WiMAX and TD-SCDMA (China’s 3G standard for mobile telecommunication). These devices provide the industries best linearity and broadband accurracy for cellular base stations, repeaters and femtocells.
These new 50-Ohm DSAs have an operating frequency range of near DC up to 6 GHz with exceptional low frequency performance, input IP3 > +60 dBm at 3 GHz, superior noise immunity and ESD tolerance of 500 V HBM. The device operates with equivalent performance at 3.3 and 5 V supply with very low power consumption, allowing the use of a single device in both the RF and IF radio sections to save board space.
Peregrine’s newest DSAs provide many additional features, including on-board CMOS logic which facilitates 2.75 V control, and a high-α state at power-up (PUP). The devices are available in the compact, RoHS-compliant QFN 32-lead package (5x5x0.85 mm). All products are sampling now and are priced at PE43501: $2.12 (50K units); and PE43601: $2.28 (50K units).