Menlo Micro Demos Ideal Switch Technology at IMS2022

June 16, 2022

Demos will cover RF power density, tunable RF filters, beamsteering antenna, IP3 performance, and multiplexing capabilities.

David Maliniak

Related To: Microwaves & RF

This article is part of our IMS2022 coverage.

In booth #7110 at IMS2022, Menlo Micro will provide demonstrations of its Ideal Switch products, technologies and RF switching solutions:

RF power density: Ideal Switch technology features ultra-low insertion loss, enabling high-power capabilities in new form factors with no need for bulky heat sinks. This demonstration compares Menlo Micro’s MM5120 Ideal Switch power handling and thermal performance with traditional GaN RF switches, enabling significant SWaP-C savings for high-power radio designs.
Ultra-low-loss reconfigurable and tunable RF filters: Software-defined radios require increasing levels of reconfiguration for higher performance and broader frequency coverage. Menlo Micro engineers will demonstrate multiple designs for compact, high-power tunable and switched filter banks based on MM5130 and MM5120 Ideal Switch products. Learn how to quickly prototype new filter designs using X-MWblocks modular RF building blocks from X-Microwave.
5G C-band beamsteering antenna: Menlo Micro has implemented a differential phase shifter with Ideal Switch technology, enabling simplified analog/RF approaches to beam-steering antennas. The demonstration antenna operates in the 3.5-GHz band—a key part of the emerging 5G spectrum. The antenna contains no motors or mechanical tuning components, has extremely high passive intermodulation (PIM), and operates with very high reliability and microsecond switching speeds.
Extreme linearity for advanced communications systems: High IP3 or linearity is critical for maintaining high data rates in highly complex modulation schemes. The Ideal Switch material set is designed for extreme linearity from 100× to 10,000× higher than solid-state switches. This demo will showcase IP3 performance more than 95 dBm using specialized PIM testers to measure passive devices such as cables and connectors.
Integrated Differential MUX for PCIe Test: This demo showcases the company’s MM5600 DPDT switch module at up to 40-Gbps data rates to meet stringent PCIe Gen 5 requirements, including eye-diagram performance of two MM5600 differential switches configured in a dual DPDT configuration with loopback.

For more information, visit the company website.

For more IMS2022 coverage, visit our digital magazine.

About the Author

David Maliniak | Executive Editor, Microwaves & RF

I am Executive Editor of Microwaves & RF, an all-digital publication that broadly covers all aspects of wireless communications. More particularly, we're keeping a close eye on technologies in the consumer-oriented 5G, 6G, IoT, M2M, and V2X markets, in which much of the wireless market's growth will occur in this decade and beyond. I work with a great team of editors to provide engineers, developers, and technical managers with interesting and useful articles and videos on a regular basis. Check out our free newsletters to see the latest content.

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About me:

In his long career in the B2B electronics-industry media, David Maliniak has held editorial roles as both generalist and specialist. As Components Editor and, later, as Editor in Chief of EE Product News, David gained breadth of experience in covering the industry at large. In serving as EDA/Test and Measurement Technology Editor at Electronic Design, he developed deep insight into those complex areas of technology. Most recently, David worked in technical marketing communications at Teledyne LeCroy, leaving to rejoin the EOEM B2B publishing world in January 2020. David earned a B.A. in journalism at New York University.