DC-to-20-GHz MMIC multibit digital attenuators with on-chip TTL control

Broadband digital attenuators (DC to 20 GHz) featuring on-chip translators for direct TTL control have been designed and fabricated for MMIC insertion into advanced EW systems. The MMIC digital attenuators utilize a novel distributed topology to provide exceptional performance parameters include through-state insertion losses of less than 5 dB for a 4-b attenuator, 4 dB for a 2-b attenuator, 2 dB for a switched attenuator, and normalized mean attenuation accuracies within 0.5 dB from DC to 20 GHz for each attenuator. When cascaded, this set of digital attenuators provides the high-dynamic range (>75 dB) required for advanced EW system applications.>