Peregrine Semiconductor Introduces Glitch-less RF Digital Step Attenuators

Next-Generation Digital Step Attenuators, the UltraCMOS® PE43711, PE43712 and PE43713, Provide Glitch-less Attenuation State Transitions, Increased Design-in Flexibility and Performance Upgrades

SAN DIEGO – April 22, 2015 – Peregrine Semiconductor Corp., founder of RF SOI (silicon on insulator) and pioneer of advanced RF solutions, announces three UltraCMOS® glitch-less RF digital step attenuators (DSAs)—the PE43711PE43712 and PE43713. Next generation to Peregrine’s existing DSA portfolio, these glitch-less attenuators feature an extended temperature range, a wider power supply, a faster switching speed, broader control logic support, increased ESD tolerance and, as the product name suggests, glitch-less attenuation state transitions. The PE43711 and PE43712 are designed for wireless-infrastructure devices, land-mobile-radio (LMR) applications and point-to-point communication systems; the PE43713 is ideally suited for test-and-measurement (T&M) applications.

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 Peregrine’s new glitch-less DSAs, this output power glitch is significantly reduced to less than 0.3 dB, enabling customers to decrease their engineering overhead and prevent damage to expensive sub-assemblies.

Peregrine Semiconductor’s next-generation, glitch-less digital step attenuators (DSAs), the UltraCMOS® PE43711, PE43712 and PE43713, provide glitch-less attenuation state transitions, increased design-in flexibility and performance upgrades.
“In 2004 Peregrine Semiconductor introduced the world’s first single-chip DSA and has since shipped tens of millions of units,” says Kinana Hussain, director of marketing at Peregrine Semiconductor. “Building on Peregrine’s market-leading DSA portfolio, the PE43711, PE43712 and PE43713 offer improved performance and features along with a solution to one of our customers’ biggest challenges—attenuation state transition glitches.”

Features, Packaging, Pricing & Availability
The UltraCMOS® PE43711, PE43712 and PE43713 are 50-ohm, 7-bit DSAs that support a broad frequency range from 9 kHz to 6 GHz. They cover a 31.75 dB attenuation range with flexible attenuation steps of 0.25 dB, 0.5 dB and 1 dB. These DSAs are capable of maintaining 0.25 dB monotonicity through 4 GHz, 0.5 dB monotonicity through 5 GHz and 1 dB monotonicity through 6 GHz.

Pin-for-pin compatible with Peregrine’s legacy DSAs, the PE43711, PE43712 and PE43713 offer product specification improvements including an extended temperature range of -40 to 105-degrees Celsius, a wider power supply of 2.3 to 5.5V, a faster switching time of 275 ns, control logic support of both 1.8V and 3.3V, increased ESD tolerance of 3000V HBM and glitch-less attenuation state performance of less than 0.3 dB.

The PE43711 is offered in a 24-lead, 4 x 4 mm QFN package, while the PE43712 and PE43713 are packaged in a 32-lead 5 x 5 mm QFN. Volume production units, samples and evaluation kits are available now. For 10K quantity orders, each PE43711 is $2.60, each PE43712 is $2.80 and each PE43713 is $8.80.  

ABOUT PEREGRINE SEMICONDUCTOR
Peregrine Semiconductor Corporation, a Murata company, is the founder of RF silicon on insulator (SOI) and is a leading fabless provider of high-performance, integrated RF solutions. Since 1988 Peregrine and its founding team have been perfecting UltraCMOS® technology—a patented, advanced form of SOI—to deliver the performance edge needed to solve the RF market’s biggest challenges, such as linearity. With products that deliver best-in-class performance and monolithic integration, Peregrine is the trusted choice for market leaders in automotive, broadband, industrial, Internet of Things, mobile devices, smartphones, space, test-and-measurement equipment and wireless infrastructure. A Murata company since December 2014, Peregrine holds more than 180 filed and pending patents and has shipped over 2 billion UltraCMOS units. For more information, visit https://www.psemi.com.

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The Peregrine Semiconductor name, logo, and UltraCMOS are registered trademarks of Peregrine Semiconductor Corporation in the U.S.A., and other countries.  All other trademarks mentioned herein are the property of their respective owners.

 

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