Date: 13/05/2012

Hittite releases a dual channel downconverter RFIC for multi standard diversity receivers

Hittite Microwave Corporation has released a new broadband high IP3 dual channel downconverter which operates from 700 to 3500 MHz. The HMC990LP4E is suitable for frequency conversion applications in wireless infrastructure equipment such as base transceiver stations, remote radio units and small cells.

The HMC990LP4E, linear dual channel downconverting mixer is optimized for multi-standard diversity receiver applications which require low power consumption and small size. This integrated RFIC features new wideband limiting LO amplifiers to achieve RF bandwidth of 700 MHz to 3500 MHz. The HMC990LP4E supports both high-side and low-side LO injection over the entire RF frequency band. The device consumes less than 1.5 Watts.

The HMC990LP4E integrates LO and IF amplifiers, LO and RF baluns and wideband passive mixer cores with bias control. The unique architecture of this dual channel converter provides LO/RF, LO/IF, and RF/IF isolations, while the RF and LO input ports are internally matched to 50O. The HMC990LP4E exhibits a low noise figure of 9 dB with high input IP3 of +25 dBm. For narrow band applications, the input IP3 performance of the HMC990LP4E can be further optimized with simple external matching.

The device is RoHS compliant and is available in 4 x 4 mm plastic QFN package.