JFW Industries, a leading manufacturer of RF Attenuator systems has developed two new programmable benchtop attenuator assemblies that operate 400-8400 MHz. Each attenuator assembly uses solid-state step attenuators with an attenuation range of 0 to 95 dB in 1 dB steps and an insertion loss of less than 8.5 dB. They can handle an RF input power of up to +24 dBm, with no-damage tolerance up to +28 dBm and a VSWR of 1.70: 1. The attenuator assemblies support both manual and remote operation through Ethernet and RS-232 interfaces, with typical switching speeds of approximately 4 µs after command processing.
The Model 50BA-061-95 is a mini-benchtop assembly integrating two independently controlled attenuators. It has a manual control that provides momentary lever switches on the front panel, paired with 7-segment LED displays that show the current attenuation setting for each channel. The unit supports tap-to-step and hold-to-jog operation, with configurable jog speed, and allows multiple users to access the system over Ethernet using DHCP or fixed addressing. It has RS-232 control, supporting baud rates up to 115200 with operation specified over a 0 °C to +50 °C temperature range. This solid-state programmable attenuator is available as a module measuring 6.75 x 3.25 inches and has SMA (female) connectors.
The Model 50PA-1322-XX is a scalable benchtop attenuator assembly that can be configured with one to nine attenuators in a single enclosure. It has manual control that is handled through a front-panel keypad and LCD, which also provides access to network configuration parameters such as IP address, subnet mask, gateway, and serial baud rate. Ethernet control supports up to 12 simultaneous users, and the system implements an ASCII-based remote command set for attenuator control, system management, and network configuration. All RF connectors are located on the rear panel with an operating temperature specified from 0 °C to +50 °C. This solid-state programmable attenuator is available as a module measuring 10 x 5 inches and has SMA (female) connectors.