Peregrine Semiconductor has released the RoHS-compliant PE64904 and PE64905 DuNE DTCs (digitally tunable capacitors) that provide a monolithically integrated impedance tuning solution for demanding RF applications. The company claims that the DTCs enable wide-band tunable networks, minimise mismatch losses, improve system efficiency, and reduce radio complexity for a cost-effective tuning solution. The DTCs are suitable for tunable filters, RFID, and antenna tuning applications.
The capacitors can be used in series or shunt configurations to support tuning circuit topologies. They have a capacitance range from 0.7 to 4.6pF in discrete 126fF steps in series configuration. The capacitors also have a capacitance from 1.1 to 5.1pF in discrete 131fF steps in shunt configuration. The quality factor for a shunt-configured DTC is approximately 35 for the low capacitance state.
To address the requirements of peripheral interface programming, the PE64904 and PE64905 capacitors are available in three-wire serial peripheral interface-compatible and two-wire I2C-compatible serial control versions. These interface options allow multiple DTCs to be controlled by a single serial interface.
Both the capacitors are manufactured using the company's UltraCMOS silicon-on-sapphire process technology. The capacitors have an RF power handling capability of over +38dBm at 50Ω. They have a power supply range from 2.3 to 3.6V and consume a power of 140μA at 2.6V. The DTCs have a second-order intercept of +105dBm and a third order intercept of +65dBm across an operating range from 100MHz to 3GHz. The company's HaRP technology delivers a harmonic performance of 75dBc across the tuning range. It also has a switching time of 12μs and a settling time of 10μs.
