Pasternack Blog

RF Antennas Antennas are used to channel radio waves for the purpose of communicating information across distances without wires. Antennas are necessary for a radio receiver or transmitter to convey signals between, for example, radio and television broadcast, cellular networks, Wi-Fi devices, radar and GPS, and remote control devices. Antennas transmit and receive radio waves ..

Electrical losses in a coaxial cable create heat in the outer and center conductors and are the two main types of coaxial cable loss, skin-effect loss and dielectric loss, respectively. This heat, or loss, can be calculated with the understanding of the following concepts. What is Skin Effect Loss? In coaxial cable, skin effect is ..

The coaxial cable provides a transmission line with low loss characteristics that can shield from outside signals and provide a durable yet flexible line that can be used in a variety of applications with a wide range of frequencies.  At microwave frequencies, much of the loss in coaxial cable transmission lines is characterized as metal ..

In the previous sections of the “Coaxial Cable Power Handling” blog series, a brief overview of coax power handling, and how cable size, cable type, signal frequency, and electron velocity through a cable, influenced the power handling capability of a coaxial cable. In this section, attenuation/loss, environmental factors, VSWR, and cable capacitance, will be touched ..

In the previous portion of the “Coaxial Cable Power Handling” blog series, we discussed an overview of coax power handling and how cable power handling impacts cable choice. In this portion of the blog series, we will take a deeper look into how cable size and type, as well as signal frequency and electron velocity ..

The coaxial cable provides a transmission line with low loss characteristics that can shield from outside signals and provide a durable yet flexible line that can be used in a variety of applications with a wide range of frequencies. Power handling capability, also known as the power capacity, is one of the important criteria in ..

Coaxial cable transfers radio frequency power from one point to another and, in the ideal world, the same amount of power would transfer along the cable to the remote end of the coax cable. However, real world conditions include some power loss along the length of the cable. Loss, or attenuation, is one of the ..

Amplifiers are electronic devices that increase the power of a signal. The amount of amplification in an amplifier is measured by its gain, or the ratio of output voltage, current, or power to the input with a power gain greater than one. An RF amplifier is similar to an audio amplifier but with components suitable ..

Basic Baluns The type of balun used in microwave RF designs depends on the bandwidth required, the operating frequency, and the physical architecture of the design. As differential power dividers, baluns can be transformers, capacitively and/or magnetically coupled transmission lines, hybrid couplers, or used in a combination of power divider and inverter. Baluns are used ..

Balun Performance Metrics There are many different types of baluns and the type of balun used in microwave RF designs depends on the bandwidth required, the operating frequency, and the physical architecture of the design. Most baluns usually contain two or more insulated copper wires twisted together and wound around or inside a core, magnetic ..