Recent years have seen major changes in the frequency synthesis art. Ultra-low-noise discrete VCOs, the heart of low-noise synthesizers for decades, now find themselves challenged by integrated VCOs. The best discrete VCOs still enjoy 20- to 30-dB phase-noise superiority, but IC companies are conducting an asymmetric battle to dominate the market with full integration based not on the best VCO noise, but on architectural innovations that often render free-running VCO noise less important.
This series addresses the design of ultra-low-noise synthesizers.
Explore cascaded amplifiers, revealing how a single driver can dominate performance in a four-parallel setup and how optimized input power can reduce AM-to-PM distortion for maximum...
See how an X-band SSB upconverter built with Mini-Circuits components uses IQ mixing to suppress unwanted sidebands and boost spectral efficiency for applications from 5G to radar...
Mini-Circuits VP of Engineering Joe Merenda explains additive phase noise (APN) in RF amplifiers, covering theory, measurement, specifications, and small vs. large signal behavior...
The new M4SWA4-34DR+ SP4T MMIC switch delivers fast, wideband signal routing from DC to 30 GHz, with superior power handling, quick switching, and cost advantages over SOI devices...
