Microchip Technology, Inc. RF PIN Diode UM9989B

The UM9989 diode series was designed to protect MRI receivers from high RF energy fields including long RF pulses and RF spike pulses present in most MRI machines. The UM9989 acts as a passive protector (limiter) for the MRI receiver. No forward bias voltage is required to turn on the diode. It is self-biased by the RF transmitter pulse power. A switch driver is not needed for this receiver protection application. Receiver protector diodes appear directly across the input port of the receiver. They are connected in anti-parallel pairs to limit the RF carrier excursion in both polarities. They must, therefore, exhibit extremely low insertion loss, both in the “on” state (high power present) and the “off” state (receiver power present) so as not to decrease the receiver’s sensitivity. The UM9989 diodes are available in two package configurations for flexibility in design.