F6121

The F6121 is a 16-channel dual-beam receive active beamforming RFIC designed for application in Ku-Band SATCOM planar phased array antennas. The IC has eight RF input ports, two RF output ports and 16 (8 per beam) phase/amplitude control channels. The eight input ports of the IC may be driven by eight single-polarized elements or four dual-polarized elements of an electronically scanned array (ESA). Each channel has 6-bits of digital phase and gain control resolution spanning 360° and 26dB of dynamic range, enabling precise beam pattern and polarization control.

The IC operates from a single supply of 2.1–2.5V. When paired with the Renesas F6921 LNA, it achieves a nominal cascaded gain of 30dB, while minimizing the front end feed loss due to the flexibility of LNA physical placement near the antenna feeds. The chip includes SPI programmable power management features such as a low power standby mode, independent enable controls on every channel, low power bias mode and single-beam operation mode. The device SPI bus and control pins operate from standard 1.8V logic at speeds up to 50MHz. Advanced digital modes and large on-chip memory allow for <100ns beam position switching times at the array level, greatly reducing dead time and latency.

Finally, the compact and CTE-matched FC-BGA organic package with all single-ended 50ohm matched RF ports and 0.5mm pitch greatly simplifies the physical integration of these devices onto large antenna panels.