TI Korea (CEO Kent Chon, www.ti.com/ww/kr ) June 12, 2014 – TI (CEO Kent Chon) has expanded its RF portfolio by adding high-performance RF gain blocks, down-converting mixers, and complex modulators that provide an industry-leading combination of power and performance. These new RF devices were introduced at the International Microwave Symposium (IMS). These devices strengthen TI's existing portfolio, which consists of transmit DACs (digital-to-analog converters), receive ADCs (analog-to-digital converters), IQ modulators, IF DVGA, PLLs (phase-locked loops), and RF synthesizers.

The new 3.3V and 5V RF gain block family can be utilized in various designs by providing a differentiated combination of wide frequency range, small footprint, high integration, high OIP3 (output 3rd intercept point), and low power consumption features. This multifunctional device can be used in various types of industrial, telecommunications, and defense applications, such as smart meters, test and measurement equipment, wireless base stations, RF backhaul, repeaters, and phased array radar.

With broadband matching across a wide operating range of 1 MHz to 6 GHz, system designers can use the same gain block for both RF and IF frequencies. It adopts a small 2 mm x 2 mm QFN package to reduce board space and features an integrated power down function that eliminates the need for external switches, thereby saving on BOM costs and board space. The power down function provides an OIP3 rating 10 dB higher than similar competing 3.3 V RF gain blocks, making it suitable for a wide range of application circuits. Furthermore, low power consumption is possible to increase efficiency, with the 3.3 V gain block using only 180 mW and the 5 V device using 400 mW. Pin compatibility is available for 3.3 V and 5 V power options at 12 dB, 15 dB, 18 dB, and 20 dB gains.

The down-converting mixer family enables the achievement of high linearity, gain, and extensive tuning flexibility with the lowest power consumption in high-performance multi-channel receiver applications. This new dual-channel down-converting mixer family delivers the same performance as existing solutions while reducing power consumption by half. These mixers can be used in diversity receive, multi-antenna, and high-performance applications such as phased-array radar, radio base stations, RF backhaul and repeaters, and test and instrumentation equipment.

This product family features a wide tuning range supporting 300 MHz to 3800 MHz, providing pin-compatible coverage for high-usage bands such as L-band and 3GPP cellular. It is a high-signal quality product family that offers 29 dBm IIP3 (input 3rd order intercept point), 10 dB gain, and 9.5 dB noise figure for high-performance receiver applications. With a consumption of only 500 mW per channel, it enables best-in-class power consumption, reducing operating and cooling costs.

High-performance transmitters require an optimized combination of power, linearity, phase noise, and frequency range. The complex modulator TRF3722 provides this optimal combination of features and can be used with newly released down-converting mixers in high-performance applications such as phased-array radar, radio base stations, RF backhaul and repeaters, and test and instrumentation equipment.

It is a high-performance modulator that supports the spectrum mask requirements of the most demanding communication systems by providing 30dBm OIP3, a high-performance product that meets all 3GPP cellular band requirements with a PLL/VCO integrating a wide tuning range of 256MHz to 4100MHz and a phase noise of -141dBc/Hz at a 1MHz offset. It enables low power consumption using only 1.2W in general applications and 0.9W in low-power mode.