AD641

The AD641 is a 250 MHz, demodulating logarithmic amplifier with an accuracy of ±2.0 dB and 44 dB dynamic range. The AD641 uses a successive detection architecture to provide an output current that is logarithmically proportional to its input voltage. The output current can be converted to a voltage using
one of several on-chip resistors to select the slope. A single AD641 provides up to 44 dB of dynamic range at speeds up to 250 MHz, and two cascaded AD641s together can provide 58 dB of dynamic range at speeds up to 250 MHz. The AD641 is fully stable and well characterized over either the industrial or
military temperature ranges.

The AD641 is not a logarithmic building block, but rather a complete logarithmic solution for compressing and measuring wide dynamic range signals. The AD641 is comprised of five stages and each stage has a full wave rectifier, whose current depends on the absolute value of its input voltage. The output
of these stages are summed together to provide the demodulated output current scaled at 1 mA per decade (50 mA/dB).