Mitsubishi Electric to launch Ku-band low-noise GaAs HEMT

TOKYO, JAPAN: Mitsubishi Electric Corp. will launch a gallium arsenide (GaAs) high-electron mobility transistor (HEMT), the MGF4937AM, as a low-noise amplifier for receiver modules in direct broadband satellites (DBS) and very small aperture terminals (VSAT).

Offering the world's lowest noise-figure performance among fully molded package products, Mitsubishi Electric's new GaAs HEMT will simplify the manufacture and improve the performance of receiver module systems. Shipments will begin on December 20 at an initial production volume of four million units per month.

Mitsubishi Electric will exhibit MGF4937AM GaAs HEMT at the 2013 Microwave Workshops & Exhibition (MWE 2013) in PACIFICO YOKOHAMA, Japan from November 27 to 29.

The market for wireless communication systems created with satellites is growing rapidly, mainly in developing countries, because they can be deployed at lower costs than wired systems created with optical fiber networks. As such, demands are increasing for DBS and VSAT receiver modules that offer improved noise performance and simplified manufacturing.

Conventionally, hollow-type package transistors are generally used in first-stage low-noise amplifiers (LNA) due to their strong noise performance, but this complicates assembly.

Mitsubishi Electric's MGF4937AM GaAs HEMT, however, improves the transistor structure and optimizes packaging, while achieving noise performance that is unsurpassed for a fully molded package and almost the equal of hollow-type packages.