Engineering Commons^™

Variable Attenuator Blends Dynamic Range, Linearity, Chin-Leong Lim

Chin-Leong Lim

A voltage variable attenuators (VVA) with compact dimensions and high linearity can be realized by connecting PIN diodes in the form of a π network. However this VVA's maximum frequency is limited to ~1 GHz because of signal leakage through the series diodes' parasitic capacitances. The ceiling frequency can significantly raised by resonating the parasitic capacitance with a parallel inductor. This technique has been previously demonstrated on a discrete design. To reduce component count and size, this work extends the technique to a standalone, highly-integrated module. This paper reports the performances achieved at 3.5 GHz.

The prototype's attenuation is adjustable …

Limiters Protect Adcs Without Adding Harmonics, Chin-Leong Lim

Chin-Leong Lim

High-speed Analogue to Digital Converters (ADC) are used for sampling at either the intermediate frequency (IF) or the radio frequency of wireless receivers. When the transmitter is nearby, the sampled signal can exceed the ADC’s maximum input level. So, amplitude limiting is necessary to prevent ADC damage or degradation. While automatic gain control is effective for controlling IF amplitude excursion in traditional single-carrier systems, it is not desirable in modern multi-carrier applications. One solution is to cap the IF amplitude excursion with a limiter. Unfortunately, a new problem is created – the strong non-linearity that is required of a good …