Microsemi Adds Wideband MMICs Covering DC to 27 GHz

Microsemi Corporation announced a new family of wideband plastic packaged and chip MMICs. The new products, which add to a growing portfolio of high performance wideband MMICs, including

Four plastic packaged low noise amplifiers (LNAs), MMA040PP5, MMA041PP5, MMA043PP4 and MMA044PP3
A wideband power amplifier (PA), MMA053AA, and
Two plastic packaged switches, MMS006PP3 and MMS008PP3.

Two of the LNAs are distributed amplifiers (MMA040PP5 and MMA041PP5), which outperform competitive products over a wider frequency from DC to 27 GHz with higher gain of 17 dB and OIP3 of 35 dBm. The LNAs are packaged in a small 5 mm plastic QFN package, ideal for size constrained applications. The 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.

The wideband PA (MMA053AA) maintains flat gain of 17 dB and high OIP3 of 35 dBm from DC to 8 GHz, exceeding the performance of competitive products.

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 products. These are housed in 3 mm plastic QFN packages, ideal for high performance requirements in constrained size applications. The devices require minimal off-chip logic to control simplifying system level integration.

Offering superior pricing, customers can leverage all these devices’ performance capabilities to meet demanding system and module line-up requirements with minimal DC power consumption.

Microsemi’s new MMIC wideband LNA, distributed wideband MMIC power amplifier and wideband MMIC switches are ideal for front-end signal chain applications within the aerospace, defense and industrial markets, including test and measurement, electronic warfare (EW), electronic countermeasures and electronic counter-countermeasures, unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) and other military communications and high linearity microwave radio 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.

“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. “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.”

Features

Features of the new MMICs include:

MMS006PP3 Switch
- DC to 20 GHz single pole, double throw (SPDT) switch in 3 mm x 3 mm QFN plastic package
- Evaluation board: MMS006PP3E
MMS008PP3 Switch
- DC to 8 GHz single pole four throw (SP4T) switch in 3 mm x 3 mm QFN plastic package
- Evaluation board: MMS008PP3E
MMA040PP5 LNA
- DC to 27 GHz distributed LNA in 5 mm x 5 mm QFN plastic package
- Evaluation board: MMA040PP5E
MMA041PP5 LNA
- DC to 25 GHz distributed LNA in 5 mm x 5 mm QFN plastic package
- Evaluation board: MMA041PP5E
MMA043PP4 LNA
- 0.5 to 12 GHz Wideband LNA in 4 mm x 4 mm QFN plastic package
- Evaluation board: MMA043PP4E
MMA044PP3 LNA
- 6 to 18 GHz LNA in 3 mm x 3 mm QFN plastic package
- Evaluation board: MMA044PP3E
MMA053AA PA
- DC to 8 GHz distributed PA Chip

Microsemi continues to expand its portfolio, which spans the DC to 65 GHz frequency range and targets a broad range of applications, including those in EW, radar, test and measurement instrumentation and microwave communications. These new products build upon a growing portfolio of high performance broadband MMIC amplifiers, control products, prescalers and phase/frequency detectors, ensuring customers can meet highly specific and complex MMIC requirements. Microsemi plans future high performance product developments to further enhance Microsemi’s MMIC product offerings.