Pasternack Blog

In last week’s post, we covered foundational details regarding PIM in modern wide-band and multi-carrier communication systems, with a note on upcoming 5G NR sub-6 GHz frequencies being added to the mix. This week’s blog expands upon that discussion and provides more details of PIM considerations specific to DAS. With DAS, another large PIM concern ..

Passive intermodulation distortion is the result of discontinuities, metal-to-metal contact, and material properties that lead to nonlinear characteristics of typically linear passive transmission lines and components. PIM can be induced in a variety of RF components, such as connectors, adapters, cable, combiners, splitters, couplers, tappers, attenuators, terminators, antennas, and cable-to-board interconnect. PIM is generated when ..

Last week’s post covered why low PIM components, other than coaxial cables and assemblies, can be important to consider for low PIM applications. This blog focuses on low PIM Directional Couplers, Loads, Attenuators, Adapters, and Antennas, and provides brief descriptions of their use cases and value. Low PIM Directional Couplers Unlike tappers, splitters, and dividers, ..

Passive intermodulation distortion (PIM) is phenomenon that degrades communication system performance in virtually all DAS and cellular installations. The severity of PIM, and the measures necessary to mitigate PIM depend on the system design, materials, environment, transmit power, and the systems sensitivity to PIM. Single frequency and narrow band communications technologies tend to be less ..

With the growing number of distributed antenna system (DAS) and small cell installations, low passive-intermodulation distortion (PIM) interconnect and components have gained popularity. Modern complex multi-carrier communication systems, such as DAS and small cells, are now incredibly wide-band and support a plethora of wireless standards, such as WiFi, cellular, military, government, public safety, and emergency ..

Testing interconnect for upper microwave and millimeter-wave frequencies is intrinsically a challenge. The small geometries and extremely tight tolerances on geometries, conductor surfaces, and closely located differential signal traces place additional design burdens and create testing obstacles for high-speed data and telecommunications applications. One of the major considerations to address is how to add test ..

While prototyping and testing RF equipment, there are many occasions where it can be helpful to test at non-ported locations in a circuit for optimizing a design or during troubleshooting. Unfortunately, this is a much greater challenge to perform at higher frequencies, as inserting a typical voltage probe would dramatically skew the results due to ..

Outside of the rigorous military specifications (MIL-Spec) that define the best quality Hi-Rel coaxial cable assemblies, there are several other manufacturing and logistic aspects that also greatly impact the suitability of a cable assembly for a given application. These factors include being listed on qualified databases, lot tracing, testing, commercial availability, and access to cable ..

To enable interoperability amongst RF systems, the military and industry rely on standardized dimensions and types of coaxial connectors. The two major standards that define coaxial connectors for the US military are MIL-STD-348 and MIL-PRF-39012. MIL-STD-348 provides the dimensions for control of the standard interfaces, while MIL-PRF-39012 defines the, detail specifications, materials, quality conformance, qualification, ..

MIL-DTL-17, formerly known as MIL-C-17, is the US military specification (MIL-SPEC) that defines the standards and procedures for qualifying and verifying flexible and semi-rigid coaxial cable for Hi-Rel applications. Because of the rigorous requirements of MIL-DTL-17, many applications that require high reliability (Hi-Rel) coaxial cable may opt for, or require, MIL-DTL-17 coax. There are many ..