To provide a better understanding of build-to-print in general and the breadth of our offerings, as well as how our thin-film technology can benefit your applications, we’ve put together a Build-to-Print Basics series. In part 12, we tie everything we’ve discussed so far together and provide more specifics about how we use the processes and options detailed throughout this series to create the custom microwave components you need.

As the RF spectrum becomes more crowded and the number of bandwidth battles grows each year, RF designers are looking for innovative designs that minimize interference while also increasing signal transmission power. Since phased arrays can efficiently maximize gain and signal directivity and minimize interference for both Tx and Rx, adoption of this architecture by RF designers is growing. This means RF designers are also on a quest for phased array filtering options that can help meet the size, weight, and power (SWaP) needs and performance demands required by today’s RF applications. As a result, our engineers have spent a significant amount of time working on an innovative approach that can meet this seemingly impossible combination of requirements.

Today, a wide variety of capacitors with a range of features are available, which can make it difficult for circuit designers and electrical engineers to determine the best fit for their application. To add to the confusion, there is somewhat of a misconception today that some capacitors, such as tantalum and Class II MLCCs, are interchangeable. But this is not always the case. Each capacitor type has distinct advantages and disadvantages that are important to understand to ensure you choose the right technology to best meet the needs of your specific application requirements. This post provides a brief overview of these two capacitor types as well as a variety of factors to consider when making your capacitor selection.

As RF and microwave systems require higher performance in a small footprint, designers and engineers need to get more out of every component, including capacitors. To meet these demands, Knowles Precision Devices has expanded its line of single-layer vertical electrode (V Series) capacitors to include the 100nF V80 Bypass Capacitor. The V80 is a revolutionary development for capacitors as it is the first SLC to feature an operating voltage of 50V in .084” x .042” package. The closest competitor product at this size is only rated for 16V.

To provide a better understanding of build-to-print in general and the breadth of our offerings, as well as how our thin-film technology can benefit your applications, we’ve put together a Build-to-Print Basics series. Part 11 covers how we work with solder, solder masks, and supported bridges in the thin-film components we design and develop.

You can have a beautifully designed circuit, but if you can’t reliably connect the various components within the circuit, your beautiful design is negated. Let’s look at some of the materials and techniques Knowles Precision Devices uses for soldering and bridging, and how we handle these techniques as circuit complexity increases.

With our new expanded range of enhanced safety-certified multilayer ceramic capacitors (MLCCs), Knowles Precision Devices now offers a unique combination of capability and safety certification for electronic device applications. These new surface-mount MLCCs comply with international UL60384-14 and EN60384-14 specifications and can be used instead of leaded film capacitors in AC-DC power supplies where a lightning strike or other voltage transients represent a threat to the electronic equipment.

To provide a better understanding of build-to-print in general and the breadth of our offerings, as well as how our thin-film technology can benefit your applications, we’ve put together a Build-to-Print Basics series. Part 10 covers our key design parameters for resistors as well as our standard layouts.

Quadrature hybrid couplers are basic building blocks for many RF and microwave systems. For these couplers, the input splits into two output signals, of equal magnitude, with a 90 degree phase difference. Quadrature hybrid couplers provide improved input match for unbalanced loads. Energy splits evenly between outputs, and some energy is reflected back due to mismatch. For example, in Figure 1, there is a 90 degree phase difference between the two outputs, so the energy reflected at point A is 180 degree out of phase and cancels at the input port. At point B, the energy is in phase and sums at the isolated port, which is terminated.

To provide a better understanding of build-to-print in general and the breadth of our offerings, as well as how our thin-film technology can benefit your applications, we’ve put together a Build-to-Print Basics series. Part 9 covers the various strategies that can be used for adding vias into circuits.

To provide a better understanding of build-to-print in general and the breadth of our offerings, as well as how our thin-film technology can benefit your applications, we’ve put together a Build-to-Print Basics series. Part 8 provides basic and multilayer conductor guidelines as well as information on fine line conductor features.