Custom MMIC’s latest line of GaAs Digital Step Attenuators (DSA) are intended to ease the design of high dynamic range receivers and instrumentation, applications that often must accomplish gain control of 50 dB or more. Fine step DSAs (e.g., 0.5dB Least Significant Bit [LSB]) are often used for these applications. However, when a large attenuation change is needed, it is more efficient to use a lower bit count coarse (e.g., 2, 4 or even 8 dB LSB) step DSA MMIC as these parts offer lower insertion loss and fewer control lines for easier design implementation.
Die and QFN packaged versions are available. The CMD281, CMD282, CMD281C3 and CMD282C3 represent initial offerings for coarse control 2 bit DSAs with 2 and 4 dB step control. The CMD279, CMD280, CMD279C3 and CMD280C3 are the more traditional 0.5dB step control devices with 15.5dB range (5 bit). All devices are single control line per bit. For more details, full datasheets and S-parameter data are available.