Dielectric resonator oscillators or DROs make use of dielectric resonator as a frequency-determining element to generate frequencies signals with very high stability and low micro-phonics

The physical dimensions of dialectical material used, it shape-rectangular or a disc-and the dielectric constant, determine the resonant frequency of the dielectric resonator oscillators.

The resonant frequency of the dielectric resonator oscillators can vary based on the variance in the bias voltage capacitance of the varactor diode. (electrical tuning)

The frequency of these dielectric resonator oscillators is fixed. However, by using a self-locking screw a slight mechanical tuning over a small band, can be achieved successfully.

Dielectric resonator oscillators have better stability as compared to free-running cavity oscillators. They also have a better power efficiency.

Dielectric resonator oscillators have superior frequency pulling (oscillators’ sensitivity to VSWR changes – factor as compared to other oscillators).

Dielectric resonator oscillators have a high Q-factor and a low phase-noise. They exhibit superior temperature stability.

Dielectric resonator oscillators are available in a range of wide varieties to suit all applications.

Dielectric resonator oscillators are mainly used in micro-wave snd millimeter wave electronic oscillators (3 to 42GHz) to control the radio wave generated.

Raditek offers a full range of DRO and PLO (phase locked DRO) on its website.

Microwave Amplifiers take in a very low-level signal input from a lossy transmission medium to amplify it to a calibrated level with a minimal additive noise.

Microwave amplifiers are solid-state amplifiers. These amplifiers have a frequency range of 1 to 100GHz.

Microwave amplifiers are extensively used in electromagnetic compatibility systems (EMC), electromagnetic interference (EMI), defense systems, medical and diagnostic systems, laboratory, and field testing appliances, Telecommunication’s and Satcom.

A transistor used in the microwave amplifiers is the main active component that amplifies the RF signals.

These days, advanced transistors have Gallium Arsenide (GaAs) or Gallium Nitrate (GaN) which is responsible for actual amplification of the input signal.

Gallium Arsenide – GaAs has the best linearity and Gallium Nitrate – GaN – has the best of efficiency.

Besides, the applications mentioned above and other numerous applications, microwave amplifiers are used for high power radio frequency generation for radio transmitters, inter-stage amplifiers, and amplifiers used in cancer treatment equipment and radio frequency receivers.

Microwave amplifiers are specified mainly by its frequency coverage and output power. Power gain by microwave amplifiers is a factor of the source and load impedance.

Microwave amplifiers generate a lot of heat which necessitates the use of state-of-art in-built cooling systems like convection heat sink or forced air cooling to maintain ambient operating temperatures. Water cooling systems are also used in ultra-high power microwave amplifiers.

Customers’ due-diligence is crucial to ascertain their requirements which would help to determine the right type of microwave amplifier needed. Raditek offers a wide range on its website.

A Power splitter is one of the most conventional passive devices which receives an input signal and delivers multiple output signals to different output ports, with a specific phase and amplitude characteristics.

In other words, the power splitter apportions the signal input, received by the base station antenna, to multiple output ports for its further processing.

There are different power splitters known by the number of splits or output power/signals it can generate from a single input power source, namely – two-way power splitter, three-way power splitter, and a four-way power splitter.

A power splitter is a reciprocal passive device, and so the same power splitter can be used as a combiner – multiple input signal vectors combined into one output signal vector. In words, the vector sum of the signals will appear as a single output at the splitter output port.

The following functions can be achieved by using a power splitter or a combiner-the power splitter in a reciprocal application.

1. 1. Add or subtract signals vectorially.


2. 2. Attain multi-phase proportional output signals from different sources.


3. 3. Split an input signal into multiple output signals-from 2 ports to 32 ports.


4. 4. Combine signals from multiple input sources to obtain a single port output.


5. 5. Attain a capability to get RF logic arrangements.

A Power splitter is available in conventional housing and T-style housing which covers all wireless band frequencies from 200MHz to 18GHz and narrowband to multi-octave versions too. Raditek offers a wide range on it’s website.

Band Pass Filter is an electronic device that permits the frequencies of a selected range to pass while baring other signals at unsolicited/unrequired frequencies from going getting into the receiver set and create disturbances thereby.

The main functions of a band pass filter circuit to pass or amplify certain frequencies and accentuate other frequencies. It restricts the bandwidth of the output signal to the band assigned for transmission.

This functionality of a band pass filter prevents the transmitter from interfering with other wireless stations.

There are four major types of filters 1) The low pass filter 2) The high pass filter 2 the band pass filter and 4) the band stop filter.

Please note that the word “Low” and “High” do not indicate any absolute frequency values, but nonetheless, are relative values of the cut-off frequency.

Further, the band pass filter can be placed in 2 categories-1) Active and 2) Passive, depending upon their responsivity and capability of dealing with high and low frequencies.

Passive band pass filter is most amenable to a frequency range of 100Hz to 300MHz. Hi-tech designs can extend the use of passive filters in the gigahertz range.

Active band pass filters are very effective in dealing with very low frequencies-nearing 0Hz. They can yield a voltage gain, which the passive band filters cannot. Active band pass filters are unsuitable for very-high-frequency applications.

Band pass filter perform a critical role in application like power supplies, audio electronics, and radio communications.

Many filters can be found on the Raditek website.

SSPA stands for a solid-state power amplifier. This is one among the two types of microwave amplifier, the other one being traveling wave tube amplifier-TWTA.

Amplifiers come in varied shapes and sizes, especially in the satellite communication sector. Whether it is SSPAs, vacuum-tube amplifiers, magnetic amplifiers or negative resistance amplifiers, all have their inherent usefulness and drawback or inapplicability, basis their utilization.

Irrespective of the types of amplifiers, it is the most important component which makes satellite communications possible by enhancing the power of radio frequencies received by antennas.

An SSPA system based on Gallium Arsenide (GaAs) is in use for over 4 decades now and are popular.

However, Gallium Nitrate (GaN) based SSPA was first designed by the department of defense, in 2000 and were used for improvised explosion device-IED-jammers in Iraq.

Commercial use of Gallium Nitrate (GaN) based SSPA, initially, was developed for low-frequency L, S and C band satellite communications. Now, it is also been used for higher frequencies like X, Ku, and Ka frequency bands.

SSPA based on GaAs and GaN transistors are used for microwave and millimeter-wave electronics purposes like satellite, radar, communications and electronic warfare systems.

The temperature is a crucial aspect of SSPA’s performance, Gallium Nitrate-GaN-based SSPA can perform better, without degradation, as compared to a GaAs SSPA.

Gallium Nitrate based SSPA is voted to be the most intrinsically reliable SSPA compared to other amplifiers, as it has a reduced maintenance down-time that results in OPEX cost saving.

Many GaAs and GaN SSPA can be found on the Raditek website.

It is a modern-day technological miracle that we are able to receive crisp pictures, clear sound in our television sets, from satellites, orbiting thousands of miles up in the space.

The electronics that made this possible is a wonderful weather-proof device called the LNB-Low noise block downconverters.

Low noise block downconverters-known as LNB-is a receiving device that is installed on the DTH dish antenna used for TV reception.

Satellite signals become very weak during the time it travels over 22000 miles to reach a dish antenna. The “dish” part of an antenna works like a lens that focuses most possible signals on LNB and therefore the curvature on the dish.

LNB receives low-level microwave frequency beamed by the satellite that is projected by the dish antenna, amplifies it, down converts the signals to a lower frequency band and sends them through a cable to a receiving set in an apartment or a building.

Therefore, the LNBs perform two functions-1) that of an amplifier and 2) and that of the down converter of super-high satellite signals to a lower frequency conducive for TV reception.

Both these functions are important to deliver the signal through a regular cable.

However, it is found that only older satellite dishes used LNBs. The newer and the modern versions of dish antennas use a more compact LNBF-Low Noise Block Downconverters plus Freedom.

As the industry has totally shifted to the use of LNBFs so much so that they don’t even highlight the “F”-for freedom-anymore. LNBFs have completely replaced the LNBs.

The power splitter is used, mostly in radio technology. Radio Frequency (RF) power splitters are used to split or divide a single frequency line into several lines or pathways.

When the power splitters are used the other way round, it turns into a combiner where it combines more than one frequency line into a single line. Therefore, this power splitter is also a combiner. It is a reciprocal device.

Types of Power Splitters / Combiners: There are two types of power splitter/combiner.

1)  Resistive Power Splitter: These power splitters use resistors hence they are able to maintain the required impedance of the system. The use of resistors introduces a loss above the loss caused by splitting. However, it provides credible performance over a broad range of frequencies and maintains the required impedance match.

2)  Hybrid Power Splitter: These power splitters use transformers which result in a low level of power loss due to the splitting action. The major loss in this type of splitters is the loss that arises out of the splitting process as the same signal is shared a number of outputs.

Different types of power splitter/combiners are available in the trade, for example that can be used to split and/or combine signals in any ratio by selecting the correct values of the components used in their configuration.

There is some inherent power loss with the insertion of splitters/combiners in any system as no component is totally loss-free. These losses cannot be calculated in absolute numbers; however, it can be minimized.

A Phase Lock Oscillator or PLO as referred to in the electronic parlance, utilizes state-of-the- art planar circuits, three-terminal devices and dielectric resonator technology to generate high-quality microwave signals at lower frequencies. Other devices like frequency multipliers, amplifiers and filters are used to extend the low frequencies for higher frequency requirements

A standard Phase Lock Oscillator covers the frequency range of 2 to 110GHz and offers both internal and external reference options. Frequency stability and phase noise is subject to the oscillator reference type.

The vital function of a Phase Lock Oscillator is to generate an output signal whose phase is related to the input signal.

Different types of Phase Locked Oscillators are available in the trade such as:

• 1. Phase-locked oscillators with digital Phase-lock IC
• 2. Phase-locked oscillators with analog sampling phase detector
• 3. Dual loop phase-locked oscillators
• 4. PLXO – Phase Locked Crystal Oscillator
• 5. PLCRO – Phase locked coaxial resonator oscillator.
• 6. PLDRO – Phase locked dielectric resonator oscillator.
• 7. PLVCO – Phase locked dielectric voltage control oscillator.

Phase locked oscillator must be compatible with other components in the system and must not only operate properly on the “bench” but must also operate suitably in complex electronic systems.

The perfect oscillator signal spectrum would consist of a single line of infinitesimal width. No perfect oscillator has yet been discovered.

A different phase locking circuitry is used basis the customers’ in the cases where customers’ selects 10 MHz or 100 MHz reference and the output frequency is not a multiple of these frequencies.

Raditek Inc. offers the widest and best performance oscillators in the world.

A low noise amplifier is an electronic device that amplifies a very low-power signal without significantly degrading its signal-to-noise ratio.

An amplifier will increase the power of both the signal and the noise present at its input, but the amplifier will also introduce some additional noise.

Low noise amplifiers or LNAs are designed to minimize such additional noise. The amplifier designers are able to bring this noise reduction by using low-noise components, operating points and circuit topologies.

Minimizing additional noise must be in sync with the other design goals such as power gain and impedance match.

For a low noise, high amplification is required for the amplifier in the first stage. And therefore, they are fitted with junction-field-effect transistors (JFETs) and high-electron-mobility transistors (HEMTs). They are driven in a high-current regime which reduces the relative shot noise. It also requires input/output impedance matching circuit to enhance the gain.

Low Noise Amplifier is

A typical LNA will supply a power gain of 100 (20decibles) while reducing the signal to noise ration by less than a factor of two (3 decibel noise figure).

 To optimize the retrieval of the desired signal in the later stages of the circuitry, low noise amplifier is placed close to the signal source and therefore the noise level is reduced by the signal gain created by the LNA.

Low Noise Amplifier, a key component of any radio receiver, helps to restore or enhance the strength of only the desired signals and cut out on the distortions caused by generated by the other signals and/or the circuitry.

Power Splitters are devices used to split a single Radio Frequency (RF) line into one or more output lines. These are passive devices and are used predominantly in the field of radio technology.

These splitters transmit a defined amount of electromagnetic power in a transmission line to a port, enabling the transmitted signal to be used in another circuit.

Latest Power Splitters are built to retain signal strength with any modulation loss. However, multiple output ports on the splitter will decrease the signal strength coming into the splitter.

There are two types of power splitters-

1) Restive Power Splitter – These splitter use resistors that maintain the characteristic impendence, however, the use of resistors introduces the loss above that of the minimum caused by splitting.

2) Hybrid Power Splitter – These splitters use transformers that provide a minimum level of loss.

Power Splitter, when inserted into a circuit, some loss of power will occur as no component is completely loss-less.

• Advantages of a restive power splitter: they use resistors and can be made easily within a circuit.
• A low cost device.

The main disadvantage of a restive power splitter is that signal power loss is over and above the power lost on account of multiple output port.

• The advantages of Hybrid power splitter: Have lower loss of power on splitting.
• It also enables higher levels of performance visa Vis the restive counterpart.

The disadvantages of a Hybrid Power splitter: These use transformers, hence can be more complicated to manufacture. Transformers have a limited frequency range. This limits its overall range of hybrid power splitters.

Raditek offers many types of power splitters on its website.