Linear Amplifier Eyes Set-Top Boxes, Residential Gateways

The ABA 3100 high-performance balanced linear amplifier is designed for residential gateway, set-top box and other digital interactive cable devices. The device, a monolithic microwave integrated circuit (MMIC), is said to possess industry-leading noise and linearity performance in a cost-effective GaAs package. The IC's single-supply design delivers 12 dB gain across a wide 50 to 860 MHz bandwidth, while its balanced design results in a second-order output intercept point of +60 dBm. A high-linearity and low-distortion part, the ABA 3100 demonstrates a noise figure less than 3.2 dB across the CATV band and the device can also serve as a low-noise amplifier (LNA) in advanced digital set-top boxes, compensating for the loss in signal level within the box. Housed in a surface-mount, 16-lead SOIC package, the device also suits cellular telephone operations, driver amplifiers, CATV fiber optic receiver and distribution amplifiers and CATV drop amplifiers. Pricing is $5 each/10,000.