Analog Devices' High Linearity Radio Frequency Mixer Improves Wireless Transmissions Up To 3 GHz

Long Beach, CA -- Analog Devices Inc. debuted a new RF mixer that offers linearity over a broad frequency range up to 3 GHz for both up- and down-conversion applications. Within any wireless application, the RF mixer stage converts the signal from its original radio frequency to an IF. During this process, flexibility in selecting the intermediate frequency and high dynamic range are important as these features ease filtering and external blockers, producing cleaner radio transmissions. When selecting an RF mixer, designers must make many trade-offs between performance, flexibility of IF selection, size, power consumption, integration and cost. By delivering high linearity, very low power consumption, and high integration in a miniature 3 mm x 2 mm package, ADI's ADL5350 RF mixer reduces board space and cost while enabling designers to achieve no-compromise levels of performance.

"The ADL5350 excels in providing outstanding linearity for demanding applications such as GSM, CDMA and W-CDMA cellular base stations on a power budget, and the package footprint and price required by low cost portable applications, such as cellular phones." said Jay Cormier, product line director, linear products, Analog Devices. "Not only does the ADL5350 offer best-in-class performance features, the device's broadband RF, IF and LO (local oscillator) inputs allow it to be specified in both the receiver and transmitter signal paths, making it one of the industry's most versatile and flexible solutions."

The ADL5350 provides high input linearity (as measured by the input third-order intercept or IIP3) of + 26 dBm, with input compression point of +17 dBm at 900 MHz, and a noise figure of -6 dB. The high input linearity of the ADL5350 makes it an excellent choice for 2G and 3G cellular base station designs requiring high sensitivity and blocker immunity.

The ADL5350 is a 3 GHz broadband device that can be used for up- and down-conversion applications, thus allowing the part to be used for both receiver and transmitter applications. Unlike conventional passive mixers that require a high LO drive level, the ADL5350 has an on-chip LO buffer amplifier, eliminating the need for an external LO driver.

The ADL5350 operates from a 3 V to 5 V supply and consumes only 16 mA of supply current. The device is packaged in a small 3 mm x 2 mm LFCSP (lead frame chip scale package), making it suitable for portable applications.

SOURCE: Analog Devices, Inc.