Pasternack Blog

Though there are many reputable and high quality waveguide vendors, some vendors, specifically offshore vendors, may use machining techniques that reduce time and cost of manufacture. These short-cuts could have dramatic impact on a waveguide component and system performance. Any misalignments or machined geometries beyond specified levels can reduce the VSWR performance of a waveguide, ..

Introduction to Mixers A microwave frequency mixer is a 3-port electronic circuit that combines two or more signals into one or two composite output signals, and are categorized as switching mixers or nonlinear mixers– although many mixers are configured with both. Using diodes, the mixer is passive and has a conversion loss. Using active devices, ..

RF attenuators are fundamental components of RF and Microwave circuits and systems. Often found in virtually every RF application, attenuators play a vital role in receivers, transmitters, test and measurement systems etc. The main purpose of attenuators is to reduce the signal strength, such as prior to the signal reaching a sensitive circuit element. Attenuators ..

The input and output power characteristics of an RF amplifier are dominant characteristics, as increasing signal strength is the primary purpose of an amplifier. An RF amplifier will be specified with a maximum and nominal range for input and output power based on certain conditions. These specifications will further extend to a maximum and nominal ..

RF filters are some of the most important components in receivers. The main functions of the filters are to reject undesirable signals outside the filter pass band and to separate signals according to their frequency. RF filters modify the amplitudes and phases of sinusoidal waveforms that pass through them or, more simply, RF filters remove unwanted ..