24 GHz to 44 GHz Wideband Integrated Upconverters and Downconverters Boost Microwave Radio Performance While Reducing Size

Analog Devices launched a pair of highly integrated microwave upconverter and downconverter chips, the ADMV1013 and the ADMV1014, respectively. These ICs operate over a very wide frequency range with 50 Ω match from 24 GHz up to 44 GHz and can support more than 1 GHz instantaneous bandwidth. Performance attributes of the ADMV1013 and ADMV1014 ease the design and implementation of small 5G millimeter wave (mmW) platforms that cover the popular 28 GHz and 39 GHz bands in backhaul and fronthaul, as well as many other ultrawide bandwidth transmitter and receiver applications.

Each up-converter and down-converter chip is highly integrated comprised of in phase (I) and quadrature phase (Q) mixers with on-chip quadrature phase-shifter configurable for direct conversion to from the base-band (operable from dc to 6 GHz) or to/from an intermediate frequency (IF) that can operate from 800 MHz to 6 GHz. The upconverter RF output has an on-chip transmit driver amplifier with a voltage variable attenuator (VVA), while the downconverter’s RF input contains a low noise amplifier (LNA) and gain stage with a VVA. Both chips’ local oscillator (LO) chain consists of an integrated LO buffer, a frequency quadrupler, and a programmable band-pass filter. Most of the programmability and calibration functions are controlled via an SPI interface, making the ICs easily software configurable to a performance level that is unmatched.