Wideband plastic MMICs include power amps and switches

Microsemi Corporation announced a new family of wideband plastic packaged and chip monolithic microwave integrated circuit (MMIC) devices. The new products adds to a growing portfolio of high-performance wideband MMICs and include four plastic packaged low noise amplifiers (LNAs), MMA040PP5, MMA041PP5, MMA043PP4 and MMA044PP3; a wideband power amplifier (PA) chip, MMA053AA; and two plastic packaged switches, MMS006PP3 and MMS008PP3. The new MMIC products will be showcased at the IEEE International Microwave Symposium (IMS2017) June 6-8, 2017 in Honolulu, Hawaii as a part of Microwave Week 2017.

The new packaged amplifiers include two new distributed LNAs (MMA040PP5 and MMA041PP5) which outperform competitive parts over a wider frequency from DC to 27 GHz with higher gain of 17 decibels (dB) and OIP3 of 35 decibel-milliwatts (dBm). They are packaged in a small 5 mm plastic QFN package ideal for size constrained applications. Two additional wideband LNAs (MMA043PP4 and MMA044PP3) provide exceptionally low noise figure (NF) from 0.5 to 18 GHz with typical NF below 2 dB and no more than 2.5 dB at the band edge.

Two new wideband GaAs switches (MMS006PP3 and MMS008PPS) have improved insertion loss and isolation over a wider frequency range from DC to 20 Ghz when compared to competitive parts. These are housed in 3 mm plastic QFN packages which are ideal for high-performance requirements in constrained size applications. The devices require minimal off-chip logic to control simplifying system level integration.

A wideband PA chip (MMA053AA) was also released which maintains flat gain of 17 dB and high OIP3 of 35 dBm from DC to 8 GHz, exceeding the performance of competitive parts. Offering superior pricing, customers can leverage all these devices’ leading performance capabilities to meet demanding system and module line-up requirements with minimal DC power consumption.

“Our new product introductions represent Microsemi’s significant investment in enhancing our MMIC product portfolio as we continue to address our customers’ overall requirements,” said Kevin Harrington, director of strategic marketing for Microsemi’s RF/Microwave Discrete Products business unit. “We are committed to being a long-term trusted supplier of superior performance MMIC products for our customers as we continue to invest and expand leading-edge MMIC devices.”

Microsemi’s new MMIC wideband LNA, distributed wideband MMIC power amplifier and wideband MMIC switches are ideal for a number of front-end signal chain applications within the aerospace, defense and industrial markets, including test and measurement, electronic warfare (EW)/electronic countermeasures/electronic counter-countermeasures, high linearity microwave radio, and unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) and other military communications applications. Global market research and consulting company Strategy Analytics estimates that GaAs MMICs sold into the EW, radar and microwave communications markets will reach $500 million by 2019.