Problem with VCO output

[edoumani]

Hello,
I 've been searching for a while a VCO at 700-1000 MHz or 1700-2000 MHz
with output power approximatelly at 5-10 dbm. I 've searched in
fairchild, maxim, mini-circuits, and a few others. The best i found is
-3dbm. I need to have at least 10 -12 dbms. Do you have any ideas about
a vco with 10-12 dbm output or any other way to increase the output power ?

Thank you in advance for your help.

 

[Gareth]

Hello,
I 've been searching for a while a VCO at 700-1000 MHz or 1700-2000 MHz
with output power approximatelly at 5-10 dbm. I 've searched in
fairchild, maxim, mini-circuits, and a few others. The best i found is
-3dbm. I need to have at least 10 -12 dbms. Do you have any ideas about
a vco with 10-12 dbm output or any other way to increase the output power ?

Just put an amplifier after the VCO. A single stage should easily give
~17dB gain which will take your -3dBm output to +14dBm. Mini-circuits
have lots of amplifiers which would be suitable for this, for example an
ERA-3SM may be suitable.

The amplifier will also buffer the VCO output which will help its stability.

Gareth.

--

 

[edoumani]

Just put an amplifier after the VCO. A single stage should easily give
~17dB gain which will take your -3dBm output to +14dBm. Mini-circuits
have lots of amplifiers which would be suitable for this, for example an
ERA-3SM may be suitable.

The amplifier will also buffer the VCO output which will help its
stability.

Gareth.

Thanks a lot for your help.
I 've already thought of that and i suppose this is the thing to do. But
i really would not like to operate the amplifier at the saturation. I
will try to manage this.
Thank you.

 

[maxfoo]

Hello,
I 've been searching for a while a VCO at 700-1000 MHz or 1700-2000 MHz
with output power approximatelly at 5-10 dbm. I 've searched in
fairchild, maxim, mini-circuits, and a few others. The best i found is
-3dbm. I need to have at least 10 -12 dbms. Do you have any ideas about
a vco with 10-12 dbm output or any other way to increase the output power ?

Thank you in advance for your help.

If your phase noise spec isn't too stingent you could use a low cost minicircuit
amp like the mar/era series on the output.

If you are cocerned with pn, then you could use a higher frequency vco and
divide down to improve the pn by 20log(N). You can get more power out of a
divider but you'll need a low pass filter to remove harmonics.









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[maxfoo]

I 've already thought of that and i suppose this is the thing to do. But
i really would not like to operate the amplifier at the saturation. I
will try to manage this.
Thank you.

You want to operate the amp at its 1dB compression point so the power level
does not drift over temperature. Use attenuator pad to adjust the level.




Remove "HeadFromButt", before replying by email.

 

[Frank Raffaeli]

Hello,
I 've been searching for a while a VCO at 700-1000 MHz or 1700-2000 MHz
with output power approximatelly at 5-10 dbm. I 've searched in
fairchild, maxim, mini-circuits, and a few others. The best i found is
-3dbm. I need to have at least 10 -12 dbms. Do you have any ideas about
a vco with 10-12 dbm output or any other way to increase the output power ?

Thank you in advance for your help.

Micronetics has several in this category. Try the MW500 series.

http://www.micronetics.com/products/vcomain.html

Frank Raffaeli
http://www.aomwireless.com/