Telonic Berkeley has provided precision Rotary Step Attenuators for over 25 years. In the late 1960's when Telonic needed a precision step attenuator for one of their newly designed sweep generators, we had to revert to the ultimate supplier - ourselves. In order to get the performance and dependability the instrument engineer demanded, Telonic developed a basic attenuator that soon became standard equipment among other instrument manufacturers. In 1972 the company invested in an R&D program for thick film resistive elements. A year later, full scale production of these solid state elements allowed Telonic to provide industry with an attenuator that was more reliable and precise than any other available.
Today, the product line has expanded into a complete series of rotary step, programmable and custom units. Standard configurations include, Sub-miniture, Miniature, Programmable, Bench Mount, and Tandem Mounted with attenuator ranges of up to 110 dB, and frequency ranges of up to 2 GHz.
Our programmable Attenuators offer a frequency range of DC to 4 GHz with attenuator ranges of 0-11 dB, 0-70 dB and 0-110 dB.
These Telonic step attenuators are available in nine different models with attenuation ranges from 1 to 100 dB, in steps of 1 to 10 dB. There are two basic case designs, both 1.31" diameter with lengths of 1.50" (subminature) and 2.29" (miniature). This mechanical configuration reduces panel mounting space to a minimum, and also permits incorporation of these attenuators into many existing designs.
All versions utilize Telonic solid state thick film resistive elements for high power, precision, repeatability, and extensive service life.
These tandem attenuators are combinations of step units, combined in a single assembly with a single dial and dB readout. They permit instrumentation designs calling for higher dB ranges with finer step divisions.
For example, the miniature Model 8140 pictured here combines the 8121 and 8122 attenuators to provide a full range of attenuation in 1 dB steps to 109 dB. Tandem attenuators are available in the subminiature size, offering an attenuation range of 69 dB.
Telonic's line of coaxial step, digitally programmable miniature attenuators combines Telonic's thick film (distributed field) chip concept with the "edge line" conductor theory to provide relatively low-cost, highly accurate attenuator for the "OEM" automatic instrument and sytems market. The nature of the thick film chips allows higher than normal power handling capability in this size unit.
Bench type attenuators are designed as discrete instruments for use in the electronics lab, production or metrology applications such as intermediate testing or quality assurance.
The attenuators can be mounted singly or in pairs in a bench type case as shown here.