Analog Devices Inc. has extended its portfolio of radio-frequency (RF) integrated circuits (ICs) with a family of five pin-compatible quadrature modulators that cover the 250 MHz to 4 GHz frequency range, enabling wireless system engineers to standardize board designs across multiple operating bands and cellular standards.

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Each of the five quadrature modulators is optimized for a specific frequency band, reducing the performance degradation that occurs when a single modulator is specified to handle the entire frequency bandwidth. Designed to convert complex modulation information--such as voice, digital data or analog video--from the baseband to the final RF output frequency, ADI's quadrature modulators generate highly linear modulated RF signals at higher output levels. This eliminates the intermediate frequency stages in the transmit signal chain, improving transmission quality and lowering system cost. To further reduce cost and simplify system design, the devices feature a direct interface to ADI's TxDAC+(R) transmit digital-to-analog converters (DACs). The ADL537x quadrature modulators are sampling, with release scheduled for December. The devices are available in 4 mm x 4 mm lead frame chip scale packages (LFCSP) and are priced at $4.98 per unit in 1,000-piece quantities. Evaluation boards combining the quadrature modulators with the TxDAC+ transmit DACs are available. The ADL5322 and ADL5323 pre-drivers are sampling, with release scheduled for July, and are priced at $3.48 per unit in 1,000-piece quantities.