mmTron Inc. announced four of its distributed amplifier MMICs are available as Quantic™ X-Microwave Drop-In X-MWblocks®️. These drop-in, cascadable RF building blocks enable designers to quickly and easily prototype mmWave systems, then release their designs for production.

mmTron’s four products available as X-MWblocks are:

• TMC162, a low noise amplifier (LNA) covering DC to 20 GHz with 2.5 dB noise figure and 19 dB gain. The output power is very respectable for an LNA: 24 dBm P1dB and 31 dBm OIP3. Quantic X-Microwave’s X-MWblock part number for this LNA is XM-D537-0404D; the connectorized module is XM-D537-0404C-01.
• The TMC163 was optimized for high linearity and provides 34 dBm OIP3 and 26 dBm P1dB. It covers DC to 20 GHz and has 17 dB small-signal gain. The X-MWblock part number is XM-D539-0404D; the connectorized module is XM-D539-0404C-01.
• For systems requiring higher output power, the TMC164 provides 27 dBm P1dB and 34 dBm OIP3 with 16 dB small-signal gain across DC to 26.5 GHz. The X-MWblock part number is XM-D542-0404D; the connectorized module is XM-D542-0404C-01.
• The fourth MMIC, TMC200, is mmTron’s highest output power distributed amplifier. It provides 30 dBm saturated, 29 dBm P1dB and 39 dBm OIP3 and covers DC to 26.5 GHz with 15 dB small-signal gain. It has an on-chip detector and reference diode. The X-MWblock part number is XM-D536-0404D; the connectorized module is XM-D536-0404C-01.

All four distributed amplifiers have ESD protection diodes on their gate bias pads.

In the X-MWblock format, these amplifiers are easily evaluated and integrated with other components to create a system signal chain for evaluation. This building block approach dramatically reduces time to market, since the X-MWblocks are characterized and don’t require chip-and wire assembly or designing and building a custom evaluation board.

“The X-MWblocks preserve the performance of mmTron’s MMICs, introducing very little insertion loss or additional mismatch. This is essential to achieving the best system performance at mmWave frequencies,” said Seyed Tabatabaei, co-founder and CEO of mmTron. “We plan to make our standard product catalog available through Quantic X-Microwave to help designers shorten their development times.”

“mmTron’s distributed amplifier portfolio includes low noise, high linearity and high-power options covering either 2 to 20 or 2 to 26.5 GHz,” said John Richardson, chief technology officer at Quantic X-Microwave. “With their wide frequency range, these amplifiers are well-suited for electronic warfare and instrumentation, as well as being useful as general-purpose gain blocks in many systems.”