RF parts in small quantities

These people are good:

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Reply to
Andrew Holme
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As you are in the EU, this may be of use as well:

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as there may be awkward taxes on goods from the US

Wim

Reply to
Wim Ton

Mikko, you forgot to tell the frequency range in question. There is

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(up to 6GHz) delivering directly, or
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acting as distributor. Often the websites of the manufacturers have a distributor listed, or if not don't hesitate to ask them for a quote of single quantities. Some of them realized that new customers and new markets start up as single quantities from unknown small companies.

Rene

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Reply to
Rene Tschaggelar

Dear Colleagues,

I would appreciate any hints of sources for RF and microwave parts for prototyping purposes. Places such as Farnell or RS are excellent sources for non-RF prototyping (and besides, they are stocking more and more RF parts nowadays), but still I have trouble hunting VCO modules, ceramic filters, baluns, circulators and such stuff. Manufacturers' direct web stores (Maxim, AD, RFMD...) have proved to be very useful also when I need active devices. Some years back obtaining parts from those required either ordering 100's or 1000's pieces or alternatively asking for samples which lead to long and unpredictable delivery times. I have found USBid useful, too, but not when you only need small quantities.

I'd assume that there is a web store somewhere, specializing on RF stuff, selling in small quantities, having an on-line catalog and quick delivery. Any ideas where it might reside?

Regards, Mikko

Reply to
Mikko Kiviranta

Why would there be higher taxes ? You pay the shipping (30$) plus the VAT of your country. Exported stuff is VAT free what the exporting country concerns. And when you're a company and thus having a VAT number, then the VAT is of little concern anyway. No ?

Thanks for the link anyway. The prices are rather steep though, at least those I tested. A minicircuit PAT attenuator that goes for 2.95$ @10, is sold for 6.5Euro, no VAT in both cases. A factor of

3 roughly.

Rene

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Reply to
Rene Tschaggelar

Right, at the moment I'm designing for 2.45 GHz, but the my needs vary.

I've used Minicircuits before (forgot to mention), but even though parts up to 6GHz do exist, there seem to be fewer and fewer alternatives at frequencies above 1GHz. Besides, Minicircuits' parts are relatively low-integration and high-price which makes migration from the prototype to the final product complicated (need to re-design for the volume product anyway). But it is an useful source, thanks for the suggestion.

It would be nice to find a store stocking stuff from such mass-production manufacturers as Murata or Sirenza. Of course I see the difficulties of making small-quantity sales of rather exotic (but less and less so every day) stuff profitable, still I'm hoping that such a store exists somewhere.

With distributors I have encountered that small quantities often need to be ordered as samples, and it is uncertain what you can get in this manner and in what time. It would be less trouble to have a full catalog of items you are sure to get for a given price and within a given time (like, indeed, the Minicircuits catalog), compared to calling to distributors and re-designing again and again on the basis of what is available.

This is indeed true, and I suppose behind the fact that some big foundries (like Maxim, AD and RFMD) have opened direct web stores rather than rely on distributors.

Thanks for your suggestions, Mikko

Reply to
Mikko Kiviranta

Ordering from the U.S. is OK with me, it has worked quite smoothly in the past.

Thanks for the link, it is something in the direction I'm looking at. Hopefully there exist even better stocked stores, but that one may already be useful.

Regards, Mikko

Reply to
Mikko Kiviranta

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There are others on my website link list.

Regards,

Scott

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Reply to
Scott Stephens

I wasn't exactly refering to Richardson as minicircuits distributor. Minicircuits have their own europe distributor in germany which wasn't really great the last time I looked. It took them 4 weeks and they wanted advance payments. Clearly a case of having zero stock there, just passing the order on while adding 100% or so.

Richardson Electronics is one of the very few distributors having sensible prices. They also deliver in europe.

Rene

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Ing.Buero R.Tschaggelar - http://www.ibrtses.com
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Reply to
Rene Tschaggelar

I realized that Richardson Electronics

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which Rene referred to as a Minicircuits distributor, is in fact a real RF warehouse stocking stuff from a great number of manufacturer's.

Thanks to everyone for your contributions.

Regards, Mikko

Reply to
Kiviranta, Mikko

My misinterpretation, sorry about that. At any rate, R.E. seems to be exactly what I was looking for, one-stop shopping for rf parts. I noticed that Sangus, from where I used to obtain parts several years ago, seems to have merged with R.E.

Regards, Mikko

Reply to
Mikko Kiviranta

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