Open Access. Powered by Scholars. Published by Universities.®
Articles 1 - 1 of 1
Full-Text Articles in Engineering
Cut Loss In Low-Voltage, Wideband Pin Attenuators, Chin-Leong Lim
Cut Loss In Low-Voltage, Wideband Pin Attenuators, Chin-Leong Lim
Chin-Leong Lim
Many RF applications, including Cable and Satellite TV (CATV / SATV) networks, rely on voltage-variable attenuators (VVAs) for gain adjustment. VVAs consisting of PIN diodes arranged as a PI network are popular in CATV / SATV service owing to their constant impedance, high linearity, multi-decade bandwidth, low part count and compactness. When fabricated from thick bulk PIN diodes for high linearity, the PI VVA configuration typically requires a 0-15V control range. But modern equipment typically operates at 5V or less. Capping the control voltage at 5V adversely raises the VVA's minimum attenuation. To enable low voltage operation without degrading the …