Technical Insight
Microsemi ships silicon switches (New Devices)
WIRELESS PRODUCTS Irvine, CA Microsemi has released a line of silicon antenna switches that compete with GaAs MESFET switches for 802.11a and HiperLAN2 broadband wireless LAN applications in the 56 GHz band. A variety of front-end components are on offer including antenna switches, protection, bias circuits, power limiters, power detectors and low-noise preamplifiers. Microsemi s patented NanoMount design contains a surface-mount PIN diode matrix, which consists of four silicon MMSM PIN devices mounted on a ceramic substrate. These new switches offer configurations that emulate transfer, diversity, transmit/ receive and single-pole double-throw (SPDT) functions. The MNM4200 series offers wide-bandwidth and 10 CW incident power handling with an isolation of 25 dB and insertion loss of 1 dB at 6 GHz. www.microsemi.com
