Digital Attenuators with High Attenuation Range and Accuracy

Skyworks Solutions offers a select group of digital attenuators from their broad product portfolio. Skyworks' extensive portfolio of RF microwave products includes solutions for wireless communications infrastructure systems, such as cellular telephone base stations, WiMAX/WLAN access points, land-mobile radio systems, point-to-point radio links and more. Skyworks' digital attenuators attenuate signals in receive and transmit signal paths, and are controlled by serial or parallel interfaces and offer attenuation bit accuracy as great as 0.25 dB.

Select attenuators include the most popular GaAs 1-, 2-, 3-, 4-, 5-, 6- and 7-bit RF and IF attenuators. These devices provide excellent performance and value for applications such as Tx/Rx power control in transceiver blocks. All attenuators are designed using Skyworks' state-of-the-art, Pseudomorphic High Electron Mobility Transistor (pHEMT) process. Some designs incorporate CMOS controllers to generate negative bias to extend frequency response down to 50 MHz for IF applications. These designs do not require DC blocking capacitors on the RF lines. The use of CMOS in the package also provides the functionality of serial port interface (SPI) control as well as the decoding of logic functions. The CMOS designs draw very little bias control current when compared to integrating the decode functions on a GaAs design. Select attenuators have been fully characterized for low-frequency applications, covering the UHF and VHF ranges.