Linear LTC5587 detector

Linear has introduced the LTC5587, said to be an industry-first 40 dB dynamic range 6 GHz RMS detector integrated with a high sampling rate 12-bit serial A/D converter.

The digital output detector provides ±1dB measurement accuracy of high crest-factor signals, independent of the modulation used. It can operate over a wide frequency range of 10 MHz to 6 GHz.

The integrated 12-bit ADC captures and digitises the detector measurement at a rate of up to 500 k samples and delivers the data via a bit stream over a serial SPI port. The RF detector operates with single-ended input and requires no external balun transformer.

The device’s ±1 dB accuracy over a 40 dB dynamic range and over the full temperature range from -40 to 85°C offers good performance. Combined with a 12-bit A/D converter, the device provides 0.014 dB per bit measurement resolution. Its low power consumption is suitable for applications in mobile base stations, picocells and femtocells supporting all standards including LTE, W-CDMA, TD-SCDMA, CDMA/2k, GSM/EDGE and WiMAX. Other applications include MIMO radios, repeaters, point-to-point microwave links, military radios with complex modulation, remote power measurements and portable test and measurement instruments. The detector is particularly useful in FPGA-based systems where no A/D converters are available.

The detector is powered from a single 3.3 V supply. During sampling mode, its total operating current is 3 mA, consuming 10 mW. Its consumption is further reduced by a half when the ADC is idled, making the device suitable for battery powered or portable remote RF measurement systems.

It also has shutdown capability, drawing less than 10 µA when disabled.