How ferrite isolators and circulators work and where they are used — the gyromagnetic effect that breaks reciprocity, the specifications that matter, protecting a power amplifier from antenna VSWR, duplexing a radar, stabilising an oscillator, the temperature and magnetic sensitivities, and the modern non-ferrite alternatives. Read More
Category: Circuit Design
The IF Chain and the ADC: Where Dynamic Range Is Won or Lost
How the receiver back end is designed — IF gain distribution and AGC, filtering and anti-aliasing, ADC dynamic range from SNR and SFDR, ENOB from measured SINAD, process gain from oversampling, aperture jitter as the real limit at high input frequencies, and direct RF sampling versus a traditional IF. Read More
RF Filters: Choosing a Response, an Order, and a Technology
How RF filters are specified and chosen — Butterworth, Chebyshev, elliptic and Bessel responses, how order sets rejection, why insertion loss in front of an LNA is noise figure one-for-one, and the technologies from lumped LC and microstrip to SAW, BAW and cavity, with the selection criteria that actually decide. Read More