RF Power Detection products from Analog Devices

ADI is also introducing the ADL5513 log amp (logarithmic amplifier), which provides RF engineers with the industry’s widest dynamic range (80 dB with ±3 dB log conformance up to 4 GHz) to help them more accurately detect and control output power up to WiMAX and LTE (Long-Term Evolution) frequency bands. The new components represent ADI’s next generation of power detection performance. When combined with Analog Devices’ industry-leading modulators, demodulators, mixers, RF amplifiers, VGAs, short range transceivers, and synthesizer products, they allow designers to implement complete wireless signal chain solutions.

The ADL5502 is the industry’s first dual-function RF detector in a single package that combines an RMS detector with an envelope detector to facilitate the crest-factor measurement of complex signals. Accurate power measurement and crest-factor calculation allows the performance of the cell-phone power amplifier to be optimized and reduces signal distortion in mobile phone designs. The new RF detector features a ±0.1 dB accuracy with crest factors up to 11 dBm, which is five times more precise than competing devices. With the higher level of integration, cell phone users can expect up to 20 percent longer battery life. Cell phone manufacturers can reduce cost and development efforts due to the elimination of look-up tables and correction factors that otherwise would be required to accurately control transmitted power levels. The ADL5502 provides ±0.2 dB temperature stability from –40 degrees C to +85 degrees C, further reducing calibration routines while allowing handsets to operate more reliably over temperature.

Designed for any Tx/Rx application requiring measurement or control of an RF/IF power level, the ADL5513—the next generation of ADI’s AD8313 log amp—offers 80 dB dynamic range with ±3 dB log conformance, the widest range of any available log amp in its class. The new device holds its dynamic range over its entire 4-GHz frequency range better than any competing log amp. This allows designers of communication systems that operate across a broad frequency spectrum to measure and control a wider power level range with nearly no dynamic range degradation over frequency. Unlike other power detectors, which require extensive temperature calibration or look-up tables to compensate for a greater than 1-dB drift over temperature, the ADL5513 drifts less than ±0.5 dB over temperature, simplifying system calibration routines by enabling designers to use only a room-temperature calibration. The ADL5513 operates to 125 degrees C, the highest operating temperature of any competitive log amp.