Electronic Devices and Semiconductor Manufacturing 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 …