"Do more with less" is the mantra in much of today's electronics industry. It applies to aspects ranging from the size of a company's engineering team to the number of components in a given design. Of course, it also applies to the components themselves. Every day, passive components are being produced with the goals of achieving higher performance and greater integration in smaller packages - and, of course, at highly competitive prices. With so many new and improved components being constantly announced, one can easily overlook the intense design effort that goes into these products. Achieving such performance heights often requires material advancements that rival alchemy. The components are usually made smaller through multilayer approaches that are just as complex. For higher power, passive components demand good signal approaches with short signal traces and low insertion loss. Impressively, these feats are simultaneously achieved by many of today's passive-component makers.

One path to shrinking circuit and system level designs lies in low-temperature co-fired ceramic (LTCC) materials. A number of companies have been leveraging LTCC's attributes in components of all types. Barry Industries (Attleboro, MA) takes a unique approach by delivering a bundle of services through its LTCC operation. This company supplies everything from foundry services to complete design and build with everything in between. Barry's LTCC foundry has on-site RF-microwave design, measurement, and analysis experience up to 60 GHz. With these capabilities, the company can simulate a design's RF and microwave performance before fabrication. It also can check performance as part of the fabrication process. By lever aging in-house thermal testing and imaging, Barry can verify the performance of its own designs as well as those of its customers. It also is able to make both tools and parts internally in its captive machine shop. For a lower-cost option, the company even offers N/Au plating of LTCC.

Mini-Circuits (Brooklyn, NY) has used the benefits of LTCC technology to miniaturize numerous passive components including mixers and power splitters/combiners. The firm's model SIM-U742MH+ mixer, for example, uses a diode quad on an LTCC substrate to achieve an upconverter mixer measuring just 0.2 x 0.18 x 0.087 in. (5.1 x 4.6 x 2.2 mm). It operates with local-oscillator (LO) signals from 2300 to 7400 MHz and intermediate-frequency (IF) input signals from 0.1 to 3300 MHz. In addition, it provides RF output signals from 2300 to 7400 MHz with 8-dB typical conversion loss.

Anaren (E. Syracuse, NY) is so highly committed to LTCC technology that it has established Anaren Ceramics, Inc. for the design and manufacture of advanced high- and low-frequency circuits based on ceramic materials. The facility offers "built-to-print" services as well as full computer-aided-engineering (CAE) design capabilities supported by extensive test services. Still, Anaren may be best known for its lines of miniature Xinger(R) passive components, such as the model BD0826J50200A00 50Ω to 200Ω balanced-unbalanced (balun) transformer. Designed for applications from 800 to 2600 MHz, it measures just 0.08 x0.05 in. (2.00 x 1.25 mm) but handles as much as 2 W input power. Insertion loss is typically 1 dB while amplitude and phase unbalance are controlled to typically 0.4 dB and 6 deg., respectively. The surface-mount balun is suited for a range of wireless systems including CDMA, GSM, UMTS, and wireless local- area-network (WLAN) circuits.

As an alternative to LTCC, Merrimac Industries (West Caldwell, NJ) developed a multilayer technology known as Multi-Mix^®. It is based on multiple fusion bonded PTFE substrate layers that form a self-shielding structure, which can contain both active and passive components. Multi-Mix supports the fabrication of components and integrated assemblies through 100 GHz at a fraction of the size of conventional microwave integrated- circuit (MIC) technologies. It has been used for a variety of standard components, such as hybrid couplers, filters, and power dividers/combiners as well as highly integrated assemblies like switch-filter banks, instantaneous-frequency-measurement (IFM) receivers, and beamforming networks.

Of course, not all impressive passive-component achievements rely on LTCC. Johanson Manufacturing (Boonton, NJ), for example, recently added high power terminations to its capacitors and other passive product lines. The company's model TF800BB14 high-power termination features maximum VSWR of 1.90:1 from DC through 2 GHz. It handles 800 W typical power (1 kW maximum power) across that frequency range. For lower-power, higher-frequency applications, the model TF020BB3R/L/C terminations operate from DC to 4 GHz with 100-W powerhandling capability and less than 1.40:1 VSWR across the frequency range.

Voltronics Corp. (Denville, NJ), a long-time supplier of high-performance trimmer capacitors, also lists extensive lines of non-magnetic chip capacitors for demanding medical and scientific applications. The company offers four different families of non-magnetic chip capacitors. The 5 Series non-magnetic chip capacitors measure 0.055 x 0.055 in. with a total capacitance range of 0.1 to 100.0 pF. In contrast, the 11 Series chip capacitors measure 0.110 x 0.110 in. and are available in a total capacitance range of 0.1 to 1000.0 pF.

RLC Electronics (Mount Kisco, NY) recently launched a line of high-power directional couplers that features lower passive intermodulation (PIM) than the company's standard coupler products. These low-PIM devices utilize special design configurations that minimize mechanical contacts in the signal path and signal current densities throughout the device. To ensure maximum levels of cleanliness and material purity, special manufacturing processes also are used along with materials that have highly linear electrical properties at high signal levels. Typical third-order PIM levels are better than -163 dBc (-120 dBm for two +43-dBm tones). These couplers can be supplied as single or dual directional types for most of the popular communication bands. Coupling values may be as low as 10 dB with main line frequencies out to 13 GHz and power capability of 500 W average and 10 kW peak.

ARRA, Inc. (Bayshore, NY) owes much of its longstanding success as a component supplier to the ideals of its late leader, Florence Isaacson (see "Living Life Like A Microwave Legend," August 2007, p. 17). The company is a seasoned producer of high-quality waveguide and coaxial passive components including rotary attenuators, couplers, tees, and bends. The model 4-5194-10 broadband 10-dB SMA coupler, for example, handles 50 W average RF power and 3 kW peak power from 2.6 to 5.2 GHz. It exhibits 20-dB directivity with maximum insertion loss of 0.2 dB. Over a frequency range of 0.5 to 2.0 GHz, the model 2-3174-6 coupler offers 6-dB coupling with coupling flatness of ±1.0. Its frequency sensitivity is ±0.75 dB while directivity is a minimum of 23 dB. Maximum VSWR is 1.20:1 for both primary and secondary ports. Insertion loss is 0.40 dB maximum.

Dalicap Corp. (Huntington Station, NY) offers lines of multilayer capacitors for both power and RF applications including non-magnetic products. These products exhibit Q performance above 10,000 and are available in four case sizes. The A case, which measures 0.055 x 0.055 in., is operational up to 300 WVDC. The 0.110 x 0.110 in. B case operates to 1000 WVDC. The C case measures 0.225 x0.225 in. It is operational up to 5000 WVDC. Finally, the E Case measures 0.390 x 0.390 in. and is operational up to 7200 WVDC. This series is available in two dielectric styles: the 10 series (P90) or 70 series (NPO). The company offers sample kits including the DKDLC10B03, which contains 16 values ranging from 100 through 1000 pF.

Werlatone, Inc. (Brewster, NY) is known for making exceptional highpower components. It supplies broadband, high-power RF devices that operate between 10 kHz and 4 GHz at levels to 50 kW. The C7118 is one of the company's line of 6-dB directional couplers. It operates over a 30-to-90-MHz frequency range while handling 400 W of continuous- wave (CW) power. Its insertion loss is 0.2 dB while directivity is 20 dB. The company also offers wideband dividers and combiners/dividers. The D5674 two-way combiner spans 0.01 to 250 MHz while handling 100 W of CW power. Insertion loss and isolation are 1.5 and 18 dB, respectively.

MITEQ, Inc. (Hauppauge, NY) recently announced a 90-deg. hybrid coupler, model M-23-183-91WS. This device spans 2 to 18 GHz. VSWR is 1.7:1. Insertion loss is 2.0 dB maximum while isolation is a minimum of 15 dB. The coupler includes SMA female connectors and has phase unbalance of better than ±10 deg. Amplitude unbalance is better than 1.5 dB. This unit measures 1.91 x 1.11 x 0.44 in. (Fig. 1).

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