Plastic packaged PIN diode control devices are launched

The devices are cost competitive and can provide higher RF functionality, enabling defense, aerospace and medical customers to drive down Bill Of Materials (BOM) costs with low risk and little sacrifice to performance.

“Our test and measurement, communication radio, radar and MRI customers all require an increased level of functional integration coupled with form factor reduction, which is consequently driving the need for PIN diode switches with higher density, functionality and performance,” said Kevin Harrington, Director of Strategic Marketing for Microsemi's RF/Microwave Discrete Products business unit. “Our PIN diode switches are both integrated and compact in surface mount plastic packaged formats which further enables superior RF performance.”

The product families, all RoHS-compliant, include:

• MPS4101-6LP, a Single Pole Single Throw (SPST) PIN switch with a 3mm QFN-packaged series/shunt element offering wide-band, low-loss and high-isolation performance
• MMP4400, a series of five high-voltage, high-power PIN diode devices in plastic Surface Mount Technology (SMT) packages with high stability and reliability, as well as low thermal resistance, high shunt isolation and low distortion
• GC4701-6LP, control devices with a SMT PIN limiter element, providing a specially processed PIN diode packaged in a convenient, low-cost plastic outline suitable for standard or co-planar microstrip circuits that comes in a 1.6mm QFN package and offer low insertion loss, low threshold power and high isolation
• MML4400, a series of fast surface mount MRI protection diodes offering protection from high-RF energy fields and enabling passive switching of surface-coil detuning and blocking circuits. The devices offer an anti-parallel option (unconnected pairs) in addition to low capacitance and conductance

Microsemi’s devices are designed to support the company’s cross-selling opportunities alongside existing products into a variety of aerospace, defense and industrial applications such as test and measurement, MRI equipment, electronic warfare and radar.

Specific examples for each device include:

• MPS4101-6LP SPST PIN switch: receiver/transmitter and filter switching, receiver protection, attenuators in Electronic Warfare (EW) systems, channel switching in high linearity microwave radios, filter switching and receiver protection in military and land mobile radios
• MMP4400 series: receiver/transmitter and filter switching, receiver protection, attenuators in EW systems, channel switching in high linearity microwave radios, receiver protection in military and commercial radar, channel switching in Very Small Aperture Terminal (VSAT) and satellite communication (SATCOM) applications, filter switching and receiver protection in military and land mobile radios
• GC4701-LP diode limiter: RF bench-top and RF portable instrumentation, receiver/transmitter and filter switching, receiver protection, attenuators in EW systems, channel switching in high linearity microwave radios, receiver protection in military and commercial radar, channel switching in VSAT/SATCOM applications, filter switching and receiver protection in military and land mobile radios
• MML4400 series fast surface mount MRI protection diodes: high-speed detune elements for patient protection in MRI equipment

According to a recent study by Global Industry Analysts, the RF and microwave diode market is projected to reach $1.34bn by 2020. Microsemi's PIN diode families are suitable for these growing markets, as they combine lower cost surface mount packaging, fast switching and high Continuous Wave (CW) power handling capability, without sacrificing overall RF performance specifications.

Microsemi continues to develop PIN diode products and currently offers a comprehensive line of RF and microwave Gallium Arsenide (GaAs) and silicon PIN diodes, which range from low junction capacitance (Cj) beam lead PIN diodes capable of switching up to 40GHz, to high power PIN diodes designed to handle 60 decibel-milliwatts (dBm) CW power. Designed for low intermodulation switching and attenuation, these PIN diode products cover a wide variety of applications including mobile and fixed communications systems, radar systems to Ka-band frequencies, wideband EW systems, test instrumentation, MRI systems, cellular base stations, Software-Defined Radios (SDRs), T/R switch control and duplexers. Microsemi's PIN diodes are available in die, flip chip, beam-lead, stripline, glass axial, plastic, ceramic, low magnetic, hermetic, wafer-scale and surface-mount options.

In addition to offering premier PIN diodes, Microsemi also offers a range of other complementary discrete products, Gallium Nitride and Silicon BJT power transistors, and Monolithic Microwave Integrated Circuits (MMICs),which may be used to build frequency conversion, amplification, frequency generation, switching, RF detection and RF level control signal building blocks for high performance RF and microwave applications in the DC to 40GHz frequency range.