Peregrine Semiconductor Corp., founder of RF SOI (silicon on insulator) and pioneer of advanced RF solutions, announces the UltraCMOS^® PE4314, a 75-ohm glitch-less RF digital step attenuator (DSA). This new DSA extends Peregrine’s existing glitch-less DSA portfolio to 75 ohms. The PE4314 is ideal for wired broadband applications in cable/satellite customer premises equipment (CPE) and infrastructure equipment.

The 75-ohm PE4314 joins Peregrine’s 50-ohm glitch-less DSAs—the PE43711, the PE43712 and the PE43713—in offering glitch-less attenuation state transitions. When switching attenuation states with a DSA, there is a brief “glitch” or transient spike in output power. This glitch, if left alone, could lead to degraded signal quality and possible damage to power amplifier sub-assemblies. To minimize this glitch, engineers deploy a software or firmware workaround that reduces the effect of this transient spike. With a Peregrine glitch-less DSA, this output power glitch is significantly reduced to less than 0.5 dB, enabling customers to decrease their engineering overhead and prevent damage to expensive sub-assemblies.

“As the founders of RF SOI, Peregrine is recognized as a performance leader in RF products,” says Kinana Hussain, director of marketing at Peregrine Semiconductor. “Our products offer best-in-class performance and proven quality and reliability. The PE4314 is a testament to staying true to this philosophy. Peregrine introduced the world’s first single-chip DSA in 2004, and we are now expanding our DSA portfolio to include this 75-ohm solution to solve one of our customers’ biggest challenges—attenuation state transition glitches.”

Features, Packaging, Pricing & Availability

Supporting a frequency range from 1 MHz to 2.5 GHz, the PE4314 is a 75-ohm, 6-bit RF DSA. It is a pin-for-pin compatible upgraded version of the PE4304, PE4307, PE4308 and PE43404 DSAs.

The PE4314 covers a 31.5 dB attenuation range in a 0.5 dB step. It is capable of maintaining 0.5 dB monotonicity through 2.5 GHz. An integrated digital control interface supports both serial and parallel programming of the attenuation, including the capability to program an initial attenuation state at power up. The DSA supports 1.8 V control voltage and has an extended operating temperature range up to 105°C.

The PE4314 is offered in a 20-lead 4 x 4 x 0.85 mm QFN package. Samples and evaluation kits are available now; volume production units will be available in March.

For more information, visit http://www.psemi.com.