Fabless mmWave semiconductor startup mmTron Inc. has announced the first four products in a family of broadband, low loss, 50Ω baluns, covering 3–18 GHz, 11–65 GHz, and 27–100 GHz. Baluns are components that transform balanced to unbalanced signals and vice versa.
“Several of our MMIC products use baluns, and we designed our own to get the best performance. Our experienced designers chose a high power and high Q GaAs process to achieve very low loss, excellent gain and phase matching, and higher power handling,” said Seyed Tabatabaei, mmTron’s CEO and founder. “We’re now offering them as products, so other designers can use them.”
The TMC810-1 and TMC811-1 cover 3 to 18 GHz and have 2 dB midband insertion loss. The balanced ports have 0.4 dB amplitude and 1-degree phase matching, with a common mode rejection of 35 dB. Return loss is 10 dB.
On the TMC811-1, the balanced ports are DC-coupled and connected to the ground. On the TMC810-1, the balanced ports are AC coupled, which eliminates the need for large, external coupling capacitors in applications where DC voltage is present at the balanced ports.
The TMC812 and TMC813 baluns cover 11 to 65 and 27 to 100 GHz, respectively, and are DC coupled.
All the baluns are offered as die so they can be integrated into multichip modules. To simplify module assembly, the layouts are symmetric. The TMC810-1 and TMC811-1 are also available in 7 mm x 7 mm QFN packages for surface-mount assembly.
| Frequency Range (GHz) | Signal Path (mm) | Y (mm) | Differential Port Coupling | Die/SMT |
| TMC810-1 | 3 – 18 | 1.25 | 2.17 | AC | Die and SMT |
| TMC811-1 | 3 – 18 | 1.25 | 2.17 | DC | Die and SMT |
| TMC812 | 11 – 65 | 1.25 | 0.85 | DC | Die |
| TMC813 | 27 – 100 | 0.79 | 2.17 | DC | Die |
All baluns in the family are available in production quantities. These baluns complement mmTron’s family of mmWave and broadband MMICs for satellite communications, 5G, instrumentation, and aerospace/defense.
mmTron will be attending the 2023 European Microwave Week (EuMW) conference in Berlin, 19–21 September. Stop by their booth to learn more about these new baluns.
Click here to view everything RF's coverage of EuMW 2023.
