SA5204A

The NE/SA5204A family of wideband amplifiers replaces the NE/SA5204 family. The 'A' parts are fabricated on a rugged 2mm bipolar process featuring excellent statistical process control. Electrical performance is nomically identical to the original parts.

The NE/SA5204A is a high-frequency amplifier with a fixed insertion gain of 20dB. The gain is flat to ±0.5dB from DC to 200MHz. The -3dB bandwidth is greater than 350MHz. This performance makes the amplifier ideal for cable TV applications. The NE/SA5204A operates with a single supply of 6V, and only draws 25mA of supply current, which is much less than comparable hybrid parts. The noise figure is 4.8dB in a 75W system and 6dB in a 50W system.

The NE/SA5204A is a relaxed version of the NE5205. Minimum guaranteed bandwidth is relaxed to 350MHz and the "S" parameter Min/Max limits are specified as typicals only. Until now, most RF or high-frequency designers had to settle for discrete or hybrid solutions to their amplification problems. Most of these solutions required trade-offs that the designer had to accept in order to use high-frequency gain stages. These include high power consumption, large component count, transformers, large packages with heat sinks, and high part cost. The NE/SA5204A solves these problems by incorporating a wideband amplifier on a single monolithic chip.

The NE/SA5204A is well matched to 50 or 75W input and output impedances. The standing wave ratios in 50 and 75W systems do not exceed 1.5 on either the input or output over the entire DC to 350MHz operating range. Since the part is a small, monolithic IC die, problems such as stray capacitance are minimized. The die size is small enough to fit into a very cost-effective 8-pin small-outline (SO) package to further reduce parasitic effects. No external components are needed other than AC-coupling capacitors because the NE/SA5204A is internally compensated and matched to 50 and 75W. The amplifier has very good distortion specifications, with second and third-order intermodulation intercepts of +24dBm and +17dBm, respectively, at 100MHz.

The NE/SA5204A is well matched for 50W test equipment such as signal generators, oscilloscopes, frequency counters, and all kinds of signal analyzers. Other applications at 50W include mobile radio, CB radio, and data/video transmission in fiber optics, as well as broadband LANs and telecom systems. A gain greater than 20dB can be achieved by cascading additional NE/SA5204As in series as required, without any degradation in amplifier stability.