Microwave Engineering Europe - December 2007 - (Page 12) 12 COVER FEATURE: DC - 86 GHz MMICs Product lines combine to support transceiver designs from DC to 86 GHz Hittite - Velocium MMIC products provide full coverage of commercial and military millimeterwave bands By Mark T. Fallica, Hittite Microwave Corporation n October of 2007, Hittite Microwave Corporation announced that the company had entered into a strategic agreement to license Northrop Grumman’s Velocium line of MMIC (Monolithic Microwave Integrated Circuit) products, operating from DC to 86 GHz. Under the agreement, Northrop Grumman’s Space Technology sector has licensed to Hittite a number of standard products and associated technology and establishes Hittite as the exclusive worldwide supplier of these products. This agreement expands Hittite’s already extensive high frequency product line and enhances Hittite’s foundry supply chain. The Hittite - Velocium MMIC products are used in automotive radar, long and short haul communications, fiber optics, test equipment, radar imaging, space, military, and other high performance electronic systems. As consumers become familiar with the technology and associated benefits that wireless/3G and WiMAX/4G type networks afford, service providers simultaneously strive to increase backhaul/infrastructure capacity in order to stay ahead of demand. The widespread and growing use of bandwidth intensive applications such as IPTV, ondemand video distribution and file sharing can quickly over burden a service provider’s available bandwidth. In regions where fiber is available, service providers may be able to quickly provision additional bandwidth, however, in many unwired regions of the world, millimeterwave radios are providing an attractive solution. Millimeterwave radio original equipment manufacturers (OEMs) are moving towards higher and higher frequencies, where the promise of less interference, along with huge swaths of available bandwidth, offer an enormous capacity advantage over the lower frequency bands, such as those where current 3G and 4G wireless systems operate. Various millimeterwave frequency bands from 38 to 86 GHz are available for I use, with some bands providing Figure 1: Photomicrograph of the HMC-ALH509, 71 to 86 GHz as much as 7 GHz of available GaAs MMIC HEMT LNA. bandwidth. More bandwidth equates to more capacity, which makes these bands ideal for backhauling wired and wireless networks, among other high demand applications. Designers working in the millimeterwave bands such as E band (60 – 86 GHz) and V band (50 – 75 GHz) face particular challenges. While discrete devices are available, producing millimeterwave radio transceivers based on traditional chip and wire approaches can be extremely challenging, and very much dependent on the skill level of the assembly personnel involved. The advantages of using pretested, Known Good Die (KGD) MMICs over their Microwave Integrated Circuit (MIC) and discrete hybrid counterparts include reduced parts count, quicker assembly, and more consistent Figure 2: Gain and noise figure versus frequency for the HMCperformance; and the value ALH509, 71 to 86 GHz GaAs MMIC HEMT LNA. of these advantages increases exponentially with the support groups. The addition of the Velocium frequency of operation. Components used product line brings the total Hittite product in today’s millimeterwave transceivers must portfolio count to over 600 standard exhibit very high performance, and be robust products which are available to design enough to operate in harsh environments. engineers working in virtually every wireless While discrete solutions in small volume application. Hittite’s goal is to provide a onecan possibly provide the fewest sacrifices in stop shop to designers working across the electrical performance, achieving consistent frequency spectrum by providing innovative, results in volume production at frequencies above 38 GHz, without the use of MMICs, can reliable products that are consistent and easy to implement. be frustrating. The HMC-ALH509 Low Noise Amplifier Past and present Velocium customers are is one example of the newly licensed products now being served by Hittite’s world class and (Figure 1 and 2). The HMC-ALH509 is a worldwide customer service and applications Microwave Engineering Europe ● December 2007 ● www.mwee.com http://www.mwee.com www.mwee.com
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