Date: 30/08/2010

Multistate, dual-channel, digital IF/RF VGA from Maxim

Maxim has develoed the MAX2063, a fully programmable, multistate, dual-channel, digital IF/RF variable-gain amplifier (VGA). The MAX2063 provides "rapid-fire" gain selection for four customized attenuation states per path, 25ns digital switching, and low digital VGA amplitude overshoot/undershoot. It is suggeted for the "fast-attack" automatic gain control (AGC) circuits found in all 2.5G, 3G, 4G wireless infrastructure transceivers, including GSM/EDGE, CDMA, WCDMA, LTE, and WiMAX applications.

The MAX2063 can serve as either an IF or RF all-purpose VGA, interfacing directly with 50 ohms systems operating over the 50MHz to 1000MHz frequency range. Since the stages within each path have their own RF input and RF output, the MAX2063 can be configured to optimize either noise figure (i.e., amplifier configured first within the cascade) or linearity (i.e., amplifier configured last). In the latter configuration, the cascade yields a total gain range of 31dB, a maximum gain of 21.3dB, and a noise figure of only 5.6dB. The device offers cascaded linearity of +41dBm of OIP3, +56dBm of OIP2, and +19dBm of OP1dB thus providing recievers immune to strong blocker signals. The MAX2063 limits the second- and third-order harmonic distortion (HD2 and HD3) to -54.8dBc and -72.9dBc, respectively to simplify the filtering of close-in harmonics, thus reducing the cost of system.

The rapid-fire gain-selection feature lets the user access any of four customized digital attenuation states without incurring delays associated with reprogramming the device through the SPI bus. Maxim says that the digital attenuator I/O is further reduced by a factor of either 5x or 2.5x (5 control bits vs. 1 or 2, respectively) depending on the number of states desired.

The MAX2063 incorporates five circuit functions into a single, compact monolithic device. When compared to an equivalent circuit using two MAX2066 VGAs, this new dual VGA reduces the circuit's overall footprint by 32%.

Package: lead-free 48-pin TQFN

Price: start at US$6.90

Availability: Now