EuMW 2024: Enhanced DP3T switch moves to full production

Announced at this week’s European Microwave Week, the company aims to build on the success of its MM5620 2x DP3T loopback relay.

The MM5622 provides a DC-coupled version with improved RF performance.

Offering reductions in size and power consumption and increases in performance and reliability, the device will bring significant cost savings to a much broader segment of the high-speed SerDes market.

The switch’s system-in-package (SiP) solution fully integrates a driver, charge pump, and 12 high performance switch channels, offering significant board footprint reduction for production loopback test solutions.

The MM5622 Ideal Switch supports the differential signal switching required for numerous high-speed SerDes buses to 64Gbps data-rates, with applications for smartphones, GPU, CPU, network processors, as well as other high-performance computing and high-speed memory products.

“Nearly 15 months after the enormously successful release of our first, highly differentiated loopback relay, the MM5620, Menlo Micro continues to expand the applications space for these unique loopback test solutions with the launch of the MM5622,” commented Chris Giovanniello, Co-Founder and Senior Vice President of the RF Business Unit at Menlo Micro. “With superior test-coverage and the ability to perform all the necessary performance and functional validation using a single load-board, the MM5622 will bring hundreds of thousands of dollars of test cost savings to an even broader portion of the high-performance-computing (HPC) market.  We will continue to expand our roadmap of high-speed I/O test solutions to keep up with the exploding market for HPC devices.”

The device provides a complete, end-to-end TX to RX differential loopback solution for DC coupled SerDes lanes, while also providing multiple high-speed connections back to the automated test equipment.

A small-footprint and low-profile 8.2 mm x 8.2 mm x 1.6mm LGA package provides a 90 percent reduction in size over conventional electromagnetic relay (EMR) solutions. The fully integrated signal delivery eases significantly the routing and signal integrity challenges for PCB designers.

Menlo Micro says the MM5622’s unique design provides the only solution on the market for performing the three key test requirements on DC-coupled buses: (1) at-speed loopback testing, (2) high speed digital I/O and scan, and (3) true DC parametric measurements. All with a single test board.

The device’s ultra-fast switching speed (< 10 µs turn on/off time) is 1000x faster than EMRs, enabling reduced test time and cost-of-test.

Menlo Micro claims unmatched reliability which can operate with more than three billion switching cycles, resulting in reduced downtime, maintenance, and cost and a 1000x longer lifetime compared to conventional EMRs.