Wideband integrated microwave up and downconverter drive transceiver performance and small size

Analog Devices has launched the ADMV1013 and ADMV1014, a paired highly integrated microwave upconverter and downconverter, respectively. These ICs perform over a very broad frequency range with 50Ohm-match from 24GHz up to 44GHz, aiding ease of design and decreasing the costs of building a single platform that can cover all 5G mmWave frequency bands including 28GHz and 39GHz. Also, the chipset is capable of flat 1GHz RF instantaneous bandwidth supporting all broadband services as well as other ultra-wide bandwidth transceiver applications. Each upconverter and downconverter is highly integrated, comprising I (in-phase) and Q (quadrature-phase) mixers with on-chip programmable quadrature phase-shifter configurable for direct conversion to/from baseband (operable from DC to 6GHz) or to an IF (operable from 800MHz to 6GHz). Also provided on-chip are voltage variable attenuators, transmit PA driver (in the upconverter) and a receive LNA (in the downconverter), LO buffers with x4 frequency multiplier and programmable tracking filters. Most programmability functions are managed via an SPI serial interface. Through this port, these chips also offer a unique ability for each upconverter and downconverter to correct its respective quadrature phase imbalance, therefore the usually difficult to suppress sideband emission can be improved from a typical value of 32dBc, by 10dB or more. This results in an unmatched level of microwave radio performance. The combination of features offers unprecedented flexibility and ease of use while reducing external components, allowing implementation of small form factor systems such as small cells. The devices are ideal for the microwave radio platforms that run in the emerging 28GHz and 39GHz 5G wireless infrastructure bands. The converters’ 1GHz bandwidth ability, along with the upconverter’s OIP3 of more than 20dBm that supports stringent modulation schemes such as 1024QAM, are essential to allow multi-Gigabit wireless data. Furthermore, the chipset profits other applications such as satellite and earth station broadband communication links, aircraft radios, RF test equipment and radar systems. Their superb linearity and image rejection performance are especially compelling for enhanced range of microwave transceivers.