Designer Kits

Hittite Microwave Corporation, the world class supplier of complete MMIC based solutions for communication & military markets, has introduced the first product within the company's new Data Converter Product Line. The HMC660LC4B Wideband Track-and-Hold IC offers outstanding bandwidth and true 9-bit linearity performance to simplify wideband data acquisition in very high performance test equipment, ATE, radar and digital communications systems.

Fabricated on a SiGe BiCMOS process, the HMC660LC4B is designed for direct sampling of full-scale 1Vpp signals with up to 4.5 GHz input bandwidth with a maximum 3 GHz clock rate. The HMC660LC4B employs a novel design topology which allows a significant improvement in the tradeoff among bandwidth, linearity and hold-mode feedthrough. This new topology also overcomes the problem of input bandwidth sensitivity to input signal level, which is common in other track-and-hold circuits.

The HMC660LC4B demonstrates an impressive 9-bit track-and-hold mode linearity for input signals from 20 MHz to 4.5 GHz and a clock rate of 2 GS/s, and is supplied in a 4 x 4 mm SMT RoHS-compliant package. HMC660LC4B also exhibits sampling aperture jitter of less than 85 fs, hold mode feedthrough rejection of better than 60 dB, and a maximum time-domain noise value of 1.04 mV root mean square (RMS) integrated over the full 7 GHz output bandwidth. Fully compatible with existing commercial high speed ADCs, the HMC660LC4B's combination of wide bandwidth, high linearity, and excellent isolation allows it to be used with high speed ADCs to simplify the downconversion signal path in digital receivers, potentially eliminating mixers, bandpass filters and local oscillator components.

Evaluation kits are available from stock and can be ordered via the company's e-commerce site or via direct purchase order. Released data sheets are available on-line at www.hittite.com.