By ANTON PATYUCHENKO,

Technical Leader, Field Applications

RF Demystified:
What Is an RF Attenuator?
This article covers the basics of attenuator ICs, including the various types, design
configurations, and key specifications you’ll need to know when specifying them.

T
he attenuator is a control compo-
nent, the main function of which
is to reduce the strength of the
signal passing through it. This
type of component is generally used to
balance signal levels in the signal chain,
to extend the dynamic range of a system;
provide impedance matching; and imple-
ment various calibration techniques in 1. Shown here are the three basic topologies that underlie various types of attenuator design
the end application design. configurations: T-type (a), π-type (b), and bridged-T networks (c).

Types of Attenuators
From the key functional perspective, attenuators can be HEMTs, and CMOS transistors. Figure 1 shows three basic
classified as fixed attenuators with an unchanging level of topologies that underlie various types of attenuator design
attenuation and variable attenuators with an adjustable level configurations: T-type, π-type, and bridged-T networks.
of attenuation. Depending on the form of attenuation con- Fixed-value attenuators use these core topologies realized
trol supported by variable attenuators, they can in turn be with resistors in thin-film and thick-film hybrid technolo-
further classified as voltage variable attenuators (VVAs), fea- gies to provide fixed levels of attenuation.
turing analog control, and digital step attenuators (DSAs) VVAs typically use a T-type or π-type configuration with
that are controlled digitally. a diode or transistor elements operated in a nonlinear resis-
VVAs provide continuous adjustment of attenuation lev- tance region. The resistance characteristics of the base ele-
els that can be set to any value within the given range. Ana- ments are exploited to adjust the required level of attenua-
log variable attenuators are usually employed for automat- tion by varying the control voltage.
ic-gain-control circuits, calibration corrections, and other DSAs usually employ multiple cascaded units represent-
processing functions where smooth and precise control of ing individual bits that can be switched in or out to achieve
a signal is required. the required level of attenuation. A few configuration ex-
DSAs feature a set of discrete attenuation levels allowing amples used for DSA designs are shown in Figure 2.
for signal-strength adjustments with a predetermined at- Configurations include integrated SPDT switches that
tenuation step size. Digitally controlled RFIC attenuators toggle input and output ports with the attenuating pad and
offer a control interface compatible with microcontrollers a through line, switched-scaled device designs with transis-
and provide a good solution to maintain functional integrity tors or diodes used as switchable resistances, switched-resis-
in complex designs. tor configuration where the resistors can be switched in or
out of the circuit, and device-embedded type design with a
Design Configurations transistor or a diode as an integral part of the design.
Attenuator ICs can be realized in GaAs, GaN, SiC, or Attenuator topologies can be arranged into a reflection-
CMOS technologies using resistors, PIN diodes, FETs, or balanced-type design (Fig. 3). Reflection-type devices use

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 2. Shown are some DSA design configuration
examples: π-type configuration with integrated
switches (a), switched-scaled FET configura-
tion (b), switched-resistor configuration (c),
and FET-embedded configuration (d).

pressed in terms of the third-order

intercept point (IP3), defining a hypo-
thetical point for the input power level
at which the power of the correspond-
ing spurious components would reach
the same level of the fundamental com-
ponent.
•P ower handling (dBm): It’s typically
described in terms of the input 1-dB
compression point defining the input
power level at which the insertion
loss of the attenuator decreases by 1
dB; the power-handling characteristic
is often specified for the average and
peak input power levels for the steady-
equal attenuators connected to the output of a 3-dB quadra- state and hot-switching modes.
ture coupler and typically offer a large dynamic range. Bal- •R elative phase (degrees): A shift in phase introduced to a
anced configurations combine a pair of identical attenua- signal by the attenuator component.
tors using two 3-dB quadrature couplers and provide good In addition to these common parameters, variable attenu-
VSWR and power-handling capability. ators also are described by their switching characteristics.
In addition to the main design configurations described They’re typically expressed in nanoseconds in terms of rise
in this article, other types of circuits are utilized for realiza- and fall time, on and off time, and the amplitude and phase
tion of IC attenuator components; however, their consider- settling time of the RF output signal.
ation is beyond the scope of this short article.1,2 There are also specific characteristics inherent to each
type of variable attenuators. For VVAs, they’re related to
Key Specifications their analog control operation:
To select the right type of an attenuator for the end ap- •V oltage control range (V): The voltages required to adjust
plication, an engineer must have a good understanding of the attenuation level within the attenuation range
its key specifications. Apart from the attenuation capabilities •C ontrol characteristics: These are usually expressed in
and some fundamental parameters such as insertion and re- terms of the attenuation slope (dB/V) and the perfor-
turn loss, other key characteristics are used to describe at- mance curves showing the level of attenuation as a func-
tenuator components: tion of control voltage
•F  requency range (Hz): The frequencies
over which the IC maintains its speci-
fied characteristics.
•A  ttenuation (dB): The amount of sup-
pression above and beyond the inser-
tion loss.
•F  requency response: Variation of the
attenuation level (dB) across the fre-
quency range (Hz.)
•A  ttenuation range (dB): The total value
of attenuation offered by the compo-
nent. 3. Attenuator topologies can be arranged into a reflection- or balanced-type design, shown
• I nput linearity (dBm): It’s usually ex- schematically in (a) and (b), respectively.

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 For DSAs, their inherent characteristics, in turn, include:
• Attenuation accuracy (also known as the state error,
dB): The limit of variation in the attenuation level relative
to the nominal value
• Attenuation step size (dB): The delta between any two suc-
cessive attenuation states.
• Step error (dB): The limit of variation in the attenuation
step size relative to the nominal value.
• Overshoot and undershoot (dB): The level of signal tran-
sients (glitches) during state transitions.
A good attenuator component is generally required to de-

liver flat attenuation performance and good VSWR

across the operational frequency range, to offer
sufficient accu-racy and power-handling capability, and
to ensure smooth glitch-free operation with little signal
distortion during state transitions or to provide linear
control characteristic.

Conclusion
The broad diversity of IC attenuator components certainly
isn’t limited to only those discussed in this article. We
can recognize other types of ICs, including frequency-
depen-dent and phase-compensated attenuators,
temperature vari-able attenuators, programmable VVAs
with an integrated digital-to-analog converter (DAC),
and others.
However, in this article, we considered the most
common categories of IC attenuators and discussed their
main topol-ogies and key specifications, which can help an
RF designer to choose the right component for an end
application.

Anton Patyuchenko is an RF specialist with more than

15 years of experience in the field. He received his Master of
Sci-ence in microwave engineering from the Technical
University of Munich in 2007. Following his graduation,
Anton worked as a research associate at DLR Microwaves
and Radar Insti-tute. In 2015, he joined Analog Devices
and currently holds the position of technical leader, field
applications, with a focus on RF technologies.

References

1. Inder J. Bahl. Control Components Using Si, GaAs,

and GaN Technologies, Artech House, 2014.
2. Ian Robertson and Stepan Lucyszyn. RFIC and MMIC
Design and Technology, The Institution of Engineering and
Technology, November 2001.

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