RF Integrated Circuit

August 1, 2012

CML Microcircuits (Winston-Salem, NC) has released the CMX971 quadrature modulator integrated circuit, one of the company’s RF Building Blocks. The RF Building Block range is designed to provide high-performance ICs required for HF/VHF/UHF and professional radios, wireless data terminals, wireless microphones, and marine and avionics radio systems. The circuit features a wide operating frequency range, and low power consumption. The device can be programmed via a serial bus or works in direct control mode, which does not require connection to a serial controller. In both modes, programmable features include a local oscillator divider ratio (divide by 2 or 4), and linearity vs. noise optimization. The device can operate over the RF output range of 20 MHz – 1 GHz with a power supply voltage of 3.0V – 3.6V.

The chip’s quadrature architecture supports a range of modulation formats and standards, and provides translation from baseband I/Q signals to a modulated RF signal. The differential inputs are suitable for direct connection to standard modems and interface ICs. The chip comes in an RF-optimized, 16-lead VQFN package.