Ceramic Surface Mount Amplifier

Rev. V3

Application Note

C2084

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changes to the product(s) or information contained herein without notice.

4. Thermal Design Considerations

The power dissipated in the amplifiers is deter-

mined by the bias voltage and current. With a bias

voltage of +12V and a typical current of 88 mA, the

total power dissipation in an amplifier is 1.06 W. It

is critical that the end user’s PC board is designed

so that 1.06 W can be removed from the vicinity of

the amplifier. We recommend using 1 oz copper

on the layer of the board where the ceramic SMT

amplifiers are mounted.

Note that the amplifiers

should be soldered, not epoxied to the PC board.

5. PCB Design Guidelines

The outline drawing for the amplifier is provided in

Figure 3. The actual pad sizes on the LGA bottom

are defined here. When the amplifier is mounted to

the PC board, use the “Recommended PC Board

Mounting Pattern”, which is provided in Figure 4. A

dotted line indicates the physical size of the bottom

of the package. It should be noted that the entire

length of the RF traces on the ceramic should be

soldered to the PC board. The RF traces on the

PC board should then extend beyond the edge of

the package as shown in Figure 4. This keeps the

solder area larger, which increases the strength.

This also allows for inspection of the solder joints.

The recommended solder for mounting surface

mount packages is Sn63 (63% Sn, 37% Pb) be-

cause it is a eutectic compound with a melting point

(183ºC) high enough to exceed the standard oper-

ating limit of the devices, but low enough to avoid

damaging internal circuitry during proper solder

reflow operations.

Figure 2. AM05-0005 Top and Bottom

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Figure 3. AM05-0005 Outline Drawing