Microwave Journal
www.microwavejournal.com/articles/26022-peregrine-semiconductors-new-high-linearity-mixer-enables-greater-design-flexibility

Peregrine Semiconductor’s new high linearity mixer enables greater design flexibility

February 26, 2016

Peregrine Semiconductor Corp., founder of RF SOI (silicon on insulator) and pioneer of advanced RF solutions, announces the UltraCMOS® PE4152, a high linearity mixer with integrated local oscillator (LO) buffer with bypass mode. Successor to the PE4150, this quad metal-oxide-semiconductor field-effect transistor (MOSFET) mixer offers RF engineers more design flexibility while delivering exceptional linearity, high isolation and low conversion loss. The PE4152 is ideal for land-mobile-radio (LMR), tactical radio and cellular infrastructure applications.

“The PE4152 mixer gives RF engineers more flexibility in their designs,” says Kinana Hussain, director of marketing at Peregrine Semiconductor. “If the customer chooses to bypass the integrated LO buffer, they can tap into the mixer core’s raw performance. This design flexibility provides a one-chip solution to customers who previously would have had to use two separate designs to achieve optimum performance.”

The launch of the PE4152 kicks off Peregrine’s initiative to revamp its mixer portfolio. This mixer is the first of several high-performance mixer products Peregrine will release this year. These UltraCMOS® mixers will also deliver key performance advantages such as high linearity, high isolation and low conversion loss. 

Features, Packaging, Price and Availability

The PE4152 mixer operates from 100 to 1000 MHz (RF) and 200 to 900 MHz (LO). It delivers superior linearity, high isolation and low conversion loss in both LO enable and LO bypass modes. When using the LO buffer, linearity is 25 dBm IIP3 and isolation is 30/30 dB LO–RF/IF. In LO bypass mode, linearity is 24 dBm IIP3, and isolation is 60/58 dB LO–RF/IF. Conversion loss is less than 6.6 dB in either LO mode.

Samples, evaluation kits and volume-production parts are available now. Offered in a 20-lead 4 x 4 x 0.85 mm QFN package, the PE4152 is $7.40 each for 1k-quantity orders and $6.00 each for 5k-quantity orders.

Peregrine prepared an application note explaining the use of the PE4152 in LO bypass mode. This application note can be downloaded from the PE4152 product page. By bypassing the LO buffer, engineers can expect advantages such as lower power consumption, improved linearity and increased LO frequency selectivity. In LO bypass mode, the PE4152 is designed for LO power levels up to 23 dBm and exhibits a typical conversion loss of 6.5 dB.

For more information, visit http://www.psemi.com.