Peregrine UltraCMOS digital step attenuators feature serial addressability

SAN DIEGO, USA: Peregrine Semiconductor Corp., a leading 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 dB (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 accuracy 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 3GHz, superior noise immunity and ESD tolerance of 500V HBM. The device operates with equivalent performance at 3.3V and 5V 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).