Attenuator design

Overview

We offer comprehensive voltage variable attenuator design services as we have extensive experience in designing all types of attenuators up to 10 GHz. Depending on the type of the active component used, our variable attenuator designs can be categorized into two types – switch-based and variable-capacitance based, and are tailor made to suit the needs of our customers, such as the extent of dynamic range, losses, level of Inter-Modulation (IM) and power handling capability. Depending on the requirements (e.g., broad-band vs narrowband operation), our variable attenuator range comes in different topologies, such as Reflective-Type Attenuators (RTA) or Through Line Attenuators (TLA). However, we also offer bespoke design types depending on the requirements and customer specifications. In this sense, our primary focus lies in meeting and usually exceeding customer’s electrical, size and cost requirements. As the performance of any variable attenuator is a strong function of the characteristics of the active component, all our attenuator designs are optimized to make the best use of the chosen active device (switching time, parasitic resistance, ON/OFF resistance, capacitance ratios and package parasitics, to name a few), to yield an optimum performance. Our extensive expertise in attenuator design enables us to rapidly produce an optimum design, depending on the choice of the active component and customers’ requirements.

Design type

• Narrow-band and broad-band attenuator designs.
• Variable capacitance-based (no power consumption) and switch-based (high power handling) available to suit all customer demands.
• Attenuators with dynamic ranges up to 40 dB are available.