When I started writing the first edition of RF Power Amplifiers for Wireless Communications,some time back in 1997, it seemed that I was roaming a largely uninhabitedlandscape. For reasons still not clear to me there were few, if any, otherbooks dedicated to the subject of RF power amplifiers. Right at the same time, however,hundreds of engineers were being assigned projects to design PAs for wirelesscommunications products. It was not, therefore, especially difficult to be successfulwith a book that was fortuitously at the right place and the right time.
Frequently, voltage reference stability and noise defi nemeasurement limits in instrumentation systems. In particular,reference noise often sets stable resolution limits.Reference voltages have decreased with the continuingdrop in system power supply voltages, making referencenoise increasingly important. The compressed signalprocessing range mandates a commensurate reductionin reference noise to maintain resolution. Noise ultimatelytranslates into quantization uncertainty in A to D converters,introducing jitter in applications such as scales, inertialnavigation systems, infrared thermography, DVMs andmedical imaging apparatus. A new low voltage reference,the LTC6655, has only 0.3ppm (775nV) noise at 2.5VOUT.Figure 1 lists salient specifi cations in tabular form. Accuracyand temperature coeffi cient are characteristic ofhigh grade, low voltage references. 0.1Hz to 10Hz noise,particularly noteworthy, is unequalled by any low voltageelectronic reference.
