RF Isolators and Circulators

Molex’s isolator/circulator product portfolio with drop-in, surface-mount custom integrations and waveguide categories offers more than 6,000 variants in frequencies from 380 MHz to 40 GHz which can be designed to match customer-specified mechanical, electrical, and operational parameters.

Automation equipment for isolators and circulators is not common. It requires very special customized equipment with significant investment. Molex has invested in the development of high-efficiency flexible automated manufacturing equipment to produce high-production-volume isolators and circulators. It is very challenging to meet required specifications such as those pertaining to insertion loss, return loss, power, IMD (passive intermodulation), and temperature stability in a small isolator/circulator package. Combining experience with patented technologies, Molex can provide isolators and circulators as small as 6 mm while meeting customer requirements. Power handling is very dependent on the circulator’s mechanical design and ferrite material properties. Using high power increases temperature, and therefore degrades performance. Molex engineers select raw materials with appropriate properties, including the required operating temperature range.

Low IMD is very important in systems and is not easily achieved in smaller devices. Low IMD usually requires larger isolators and circulators, as well as thicker dimensions. Proper design through the application of Molex expertise, along with the optimized selection of materials and dimensions, results in acceptable IMD and harmonics performance with proper frequency bandwidth to meet customer expectations. New radio designs actively require very-wide-bandwidth devices in a single radio. Customers would like to combine multiple bands in order to have a more flexible radio system. Using Molex patented technologies, very wide-band devices can be achieved in relatively small packages.