Norwood, Mass.-based Analog Devices Inc. has achieved significant results in RF power detection for wireless infrastructure equipment. The company claims it has developed the industry's first logarithmic RF detector to accurately measure the power of radio signals from 1 MHz to 8 GHz, exceeding the previous maximum of 2.5 GHz. Maintaining dynamic range up to 8 GHz is unprecedented, according to ADI. Labeled AD8318, its unique combination of accuracy and broad dynamic range allows it to be used in many types of wireless communications infrastructure equipment, including GSM, CDMA, and W-CDMA cellular base stations (which operate up to 2 GHz), and W-LAN 802.11 applications (which require 5 GHz).

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"The AD8318 is a major breakthrough in terms of input bandwidth, speed, accuracy, and temperature stability, setting a new performance level in RF power measurement and control," said Lew Counts, vice president of Linear Products at Analog Devices.

Based on the firm’s XFCB-3 SiGe process, the AD8318 provides over 55-dB dynamic range with better than ±1 dB accuracy up to 5.8 GHz. At 8 GHz, the AD8318 provides over 58-dB dynamic range with better than ±3 dB accuracy. The temperature drift can be fine-tuned to the band of interest, yielding better than ±0.5-dB stability from -40 to +85 degrees C.

Other features include an on-chip temperature sensor that provides a 2-mV/degree C output voltage that can be used for additional temperature compensation and/or system monitoring. The part also provides the fastest output response time of 8 ns, enabling the part to be used for RF burst detection.

Sampling now, the wideband power detector is slated for production in July 2004. It comes in a compact 4 mm x 4 mm, 16-pin LFCSP (lead-frame chip-scale package), and is fully specified over the -40 to +85 degrees C operating temperature range. It carries a prioce tag of $5.99 per unit in 1,000-piece quantities.