Mini-Circuits Available in Modular Drop-In Format

Mini-Circuits Components Now Available in Modular Drop-In Format from X-Microwave

7 August 2017 – Round Rock, TX and Brooklyn, NY – Mini-Circuits and X-Microwave are pleased to announce their collaboration to offer a wide selection of Mini-Circuits’ components in X-MWblock^® drop-in format. X-Microwave, an innovative leader committed to optimizing the RF/microwave design process, has developed X-MWsystem^®, the industry’s first truly modular, solderless evaluation system with a growing portfolio of physically compatible drop-in building blocks for prototyping microwave assemblies. Mini-Circuits is proud to extend availability of our products through the X-Microwave component ecosystem as part of our commitment to providing best-in-class technical resources for customers designing Mini-Circuits parts into their systems.

The partnership launches today with an initial offering of over 400 X-MWblocks for Mini-Circuits components, including our popular LTCC filters, patented MMIC reflectionless filters, attenuators, mixers, multipliers, limiters, couplers, splitters and high-performance MMIC amplifiers, with more models planned for future release. System blocks come fully characterized and modeled with X-parameters^® and S-Parameters, enabling easy simulation through X-Microwave’s free, online, non-linear simulation tool based on Keysight’s Genesys Spectrasys^® engine. After simulation, designers can quickly configure signal chains using an online Mechanical Layout Tool (MLT) by moving 2-D models of the components around on the grid. The X-MWblocks for Mini-Circuits components are then physically configured on a solderless prototyping plate to build integrated microwave assemblies for testing and design validation. The same drop-in components can then be moved into compatible production housings. This novel, modular approach eliminates the need for custom evaluation board layouts, dramatically shortening design cycles and accelerating time to market

“X-Microwave is proud to partner with Mini-Circuits to offer their unique range of high performance RF and microwave components on our modular drop-in format,” says John Richardson, President of X-Microwave. “Adding Mini-Circuits components to our portfolio is an exciting step in our mission to provide the full complement of components across all categories enabling designers to quickly and efficiently develop any market solution.”

Mini-Circuits President, Ted Heil comments, “Through our partnership with X-Microwave, we’re enabling our customers to more rapidly validate Mini-Circuits models at the system level and confirm their simulation results. We all know parasitics and real-life environmental effects are important factors in evaluating performance. X-Microwave’s drop-in blocks with their jumper-anchor interface is a very novel way to create a low parasitic that you can’t achieve by combining traditional supplier eval boards. We think the X-Microwave system adds another element to the engineer’s toolbox to capture more realistic results and speed up the transition from concept to working design.”

Look for the X-Microwave link on selected Mini-Circuits product dashboard pages to view corresponding X-Microwave dashboards. Mini-Circuits will also maintain an online directory of Mini-Circuits part numbers referenced to sibling X-Microwave part numbers as a convenience to our customers.

About X-Microwave
X-Microwave, LLC, is the founder of the innovative modular building block system called X-MWsystem. X-Microwave’s modular drop-in components and industry leading online tools address every phase of the RF and microwave development process from concept to prototype to production hardware. To “Get on the Grid” and realize the full potential of X-Microwave’s modular system, visit www.xmicrowave.com.

About Mini-Circuits
Mini-Circuits is a global leader in the design, manufacture, and distribution of RF and microwave components and systems for commercial, industrial, medical, space and military applications from DC to 50 GHz. Mini-Circuits’ 27 product lines comprise thousands of off-the-shelf and custom models supporting over 20,000 customers worldwide.