New-Tech Europe | June 2017

narrow results by employing the same methodology on multiple performance criteria simultaneously. In cases where no exact match exists for all specified criteria, Yoni2 prompts the user rank her top two search criteria by priority to produce the closest possible match. Just as this example illustrated how Yoni2 includes a model whose spec understates actual performance within a particular bandwidth, it may also exclude models with specs that meet a design requirement but characteristic performance that underperforms at certain frequencies. This is less likely to be the case, as specs are always conservative, but it should instill confidence in the accuracy of the search results Yoni2 generates. Better Search Tool, Faster Design Cycle The Yoni2 advanced search engine uses a more sophisticated search methodology than other RF component search engines. By searching based on characteristic performance, comprising millions of points of actual measured test data, Yoni2 is less prone to false positive and false negative results inherent to searches based on simple supplier specs. This gives designers a tool that dramatically speeds up their design cycle in two ways. Yoni2 reduces the time and effort required for component selection by orders of magnitude by generating model lists that meet the specified performance criteria in seconds. Further, because the search produces candidate models whose actual performance is more certain to conform to the requirements of a system design, Yoni2 reduces false starts with products that don’t perform as expected on the test bench. The bottom line is that a faster, easier component search process with more accurate results means a faster transition from evaluation stages to working designs.

Figure 5: Rank ordering of search criteria when no exact match exists for all criteria

The search returns many models which meet this customer’s requirement, but as we expect, PGA-103+ is included among those results, shown in Figure 4. The user interface displays a complete spec table for all valid models as a convenience to the customer for easy browsing and comparison. But notice that while the spec tableshows a gain value for PGA-103+ that falls beneath the 13 dB minimum requirement, Yoni2 includes this model because it’s characteristic performance is quite suitable for the customer’s needs. The search is smarter than the specs. For simplicity, this example presented in this article only involves one simple search criterion, but Yoni2 allows users to refine their search and

Taking PGA-103+ as an example again, we know the model has a gain spec of 11 dB, but we already know that actual gain is higher than this at the low end of the frequency range. Say a customer has a 13 dB minimum gain requirement for an application band from 50 to 1000 MHz. The customer would enter search criteria into Yoni2 on the Mini-Circuits website as shown in Figure 2 A search based on the 11 dB gain spec would reject PGA-103+, since the customer has specified a 13 dB minimum. However, since the characteristic gain performance of the part exceeds 13 dB within the customers specified bandwidth of 50 to 1000 MHz as shown in figure 3, we expect Yoni2 to include PGA-103+ in the results.

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