Microwave Journal
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Teledyne

Teledyne e2v HiRel Introduces Radiation Tolerant 2.5 GHz, 100 W RF Power Limiter

December 13, 2019

Teledyne e2v HiRel announced the availability of a new RF power limiter, the 2.5 GHz, 100 W TDLM025100. The limiter is a monolithic integrated circuit based on a silicon-on-insulator (SOI) technology that is ideal for use in high-reliability aerospace and defense applications.

This new integrated device provides customers with a more reliable and robust power protection solution compared to the traditional industry alternative, discrete GaAs PIN diode circuits with multiple external components. The power limiter delivers low insertion loss and high linearity under non-limiting power levels and extremely fast response time in a limiting event, ensuring protection of sensitive circuitry.

Manufactured on the UltraCMOS® process, an advanced form of SOI technology, the TDLM025100 is available in a leadless, ultra-small 4 mm x 4 mm hermetic QFN package. Fully screened for space applications, it provides reliable protection for sensitive transceivers, with a response time of < 1 ns.  Evaluation kits, EM units and flight units are in stock and available for customers.

“This new product further builds on our strong heritage developing many types of semiconductors qualified to meet a wide range of ruggedized environmental requirements,” said Mont Taylor, VP business development at Teledyne e2v HiRel.  “We’re now pleased to be incorporating SOI technology into our product offerings while continually growing our portfolio of standard RF building blocks such as amplifiers, LNAs, PAs, DVGAs, DSAs, Limiters, Mixers, Prescalers, PLLs, Switches and more. We continue to be committed to customers designing RF signal chains that meet the high-reliability challenges of defense and space applications.”

Traditionally, with a PIN diode, the input signal is shunted to ground. PIN diodes are known for their high maximum power handling and low insertion loss. However, they also feature slow response and recovery time, poor linearity, low ESD ratings and require dc blocking capacitors. Additionally, PIN diodes take a significant amount of time to design and validate and cannot be easily integrated into a system.

In contrast to PIN diodes, the TDLM025100 power limiter provides a 10 to 100x improvement in response and recovery time, delivers a greater than 10 to 30 dB linearity (IIP3) improvement and offers a 20x improvement in ESD protection. Finally, the limiting threshold can be adjusted through a high impedance voltage control pin (VCTRL), eliminating the need for external components such as dc blocking capacitors, RF choke inductors and bias resistors.