27 May 03. Northrop Grumman Corporation (NYSE:NOC – News) announced the availability of a new, high-power monolithic amplifier designed for commercial radios and military systems operating across a range of popular frequency bands. The Velocium APH462 gallium arsenide (GaAs) amplifier is a broadband, two-stage balanced power device designed to ensure reliable operation for point-to-point digital radios operating in the 18, 23 or 26 GHz frequency bands, as well as military wideband systems operating in the 15-27 GHz band.

“Our communications customers typically build products aimed at several different frequency bands and are faced with stocking different amplifiers to meet their performance goals. We now offer a single device that covers three common frequency bands – 18, 23 and 26 GHz – without compromising performance, simplifying the inventory management challenge,” said Frank Kropschot, chief operating officer of Velocium Products. “By developing multi-band solutions such as these, we are providing our customers with the flexibility to cover multiple frequencies with one component. In addition, our customers are getting a premium product without paying a premium price.”

Suitable for use as the final output stage in the transmit chain of transceiver modules in commercial applications using complex modulation formats requiring linear power, the high electron mobility transistorAPH462 features a typical linear gain of 17 dB and IP3 of 37 dBm over the operating frequency band. Saturated RF output power is more than 30 dBm, with more than 15 dB good input/output return loss.

Produced in Northrop Grumman’s gallium arsenide foundry, the APH462 is available now for $60 per chip in quantities of 1,000.