Featured Articles
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How Do Amplifiers Affect Signal Phase Noise?
2/17/2023
Phase noise is critical to systems requiring precise frequency stability. In extremely low phase noise systems, the amplifier phase noise contribution is considered in the signal chain’s phase noise performance
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Debugging Surface Mount Footprints With Time-Domain Reflectometry
2/17/2023
Without a means to determine fault locations with the naked eye, Time-domain reflectometry (TDR) proves a powerful tool in visualizing impedance types and variations on a microstrip.
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Marki’s MMIC Filters are Hot, Hot, Hot!
2/16/2023
GaAs MMIC filters offer the best combination of performance, cost, and consistency – recent testing further indicates that these filters maintain consistency with low variability over temperature and high power handling capabilities.
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IQ, IR, And Single Sideband Mixer Primer
2/10/2023
This application note introduces IQ, single sideband (SSB), and image reject (IR) mixers in both theory and practice. We will discuss basic applications, their concepts, and practical considerations in their selection and use.
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Baluns Basics Primer: A Tutorial on Baluns, Balun Transformers, Magic-Ts, and 180° Hybrids
2/10/2023
Baluns have long been ubiquitous in low frequency audio, video, and antenna driving applications. The need for high speed, low noise data transfer has driven the advancement of the balun to higher frequencies and superior performance.
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Mixer Basics Primer: A Tutorial For RF & Microwave Mixers
12/19/2022
This Mixer Basics Primer intends to shed light on the “dark art” of microwave mixers to help customers better understand, select, and ultimately use Marki Microwave mixers.
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Directivity And VSWR Measurements: Understanding Return Loss Measurements
The characterization of microwave networks requires discriminating between forward and backward traveling waves. Unfortunately no directional device is perfect, leading to potentially dramatic measurement errors. In this note we show that return loss and VSWR measurements are greatly complicated by the finite performance of the directional device used to measure the reflected power.