RF amplifier housed in ultrasmall CSP

Touted as the industry's smallest RF amplifier, Avago Technologies has unveiled its VMMK-2x03 amplifiers in a chip-scale package with 0402 package dimensions (1mm x 0.5mm x 0.25mm). With a small size and no wirebonds, the VMMK-2x03 amplifiers experience almost no signal loss and minimal parasitics, Avago said.

Leveraging Avago's recently announced WaferCap chip-scale packaging (CSP) technology, the VMMK-2x03 takes up 5 percent of the volume and uses only 10 percent of the board area of a standard SOT-343 package. In some cases, the amplifier can reduce PCB area by more than 50 percent, Avago said.

The VMMK-2x03 amplifiers provide high gain, high IP3, low NF and integrated 50Ω input and output matching networks to simplify system design. Covering frequency ranges from 500MHz to 12GHz, these miniature amplifiers are well-suited for a variety of radio architectures including mobile devices, radios, sensors and military communications applications. They are also suitable for applications such as wireline, fiber optic, base station, CATV and instrumentation.

The VMMK-2x03 family includes several devices. These include the VMMK-2103: 0.5-6GHz broadband matched LNA with bypass/shutdown mode using a single control pin, the VMMK-2203: 1-10GHz broadband matched LNA with high gain of 15dB at 5GHz, the VMMK-2303: 0.5-6GHz low-voltage broadband matched LNA supporting 1.8-3.3V, the VMMK-2403: 2-4GHz high linearity matched amplifier with 2.5dB NF and the VMMK-2503: 1-12GHz broadband high linearity matched gain block with flat gain performance of up to 8GHz.

Avago will debut the VMMK 2x03 product family at the 2008 MTT-S International Microwave Symposium, June 15-20, with a live demonstration in booth number 1257.

Pricing is less than $1 in volume. Devices are currently sampling and generally available in Q4 08.

- Gina Roos
eeProductCenter