| P1DB | power at one-dB gain compression | -- |
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| P1DBIN | P1dB referenced to the input | -- |
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| P1DBOUT | P1dB referenced to the output | -- |
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| PA | power amp | An amplifier that is capable of applying some real heat to the load. |
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| PAE | power-added efficiency | For a power amp, the ratio of output power divided by the sum of input RF and DC power. |
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| PAM | pulse amplitude modulation | -- |
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| PAPR | peak to average power ratio | Ratio of the peak power (peak amplitude squared) to the average power (the square of the root mean square value). |
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| PAR | peak average ratio | -- |
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| PC | personal computer, or politically correct | We don't care if you think that Microwaves101 is not PC, OK? |
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| PCM | pulse code modulation, process control monitor | -- |
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| PCS | personal communications systems | Wireless stuff, thankfully, everybody's gotta have it. |
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| PDK | process design kit | What TriQuint or IBM or other open fabs will provide when you design an IC into their foundries. |
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| PDM | power distribution network | -- |
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| PDS | personal digital cellular | Digital cell phone standard. |
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| PEC | perfect electrical conductor | See our page on EM fundamentals. |
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| PECVD | plasma-enhanced chemical vapor deposition | Yet another way to apply films to a semiconductor wafer. |
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| PESA | passive electronically steered antenna | Often uses MEMS phase shifter technology. |
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| PF | pico-Farad | A unit of capacitance, 10E-12 Farads. |
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| PH | pico-Henry | A unit of inductance, 10E-12 Henries. |
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| PHEMT | pseudomorphic high electron mobility transistor | -- |
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| PHS | personal handy phone system | Digital cordless phone standard. |
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| PIDOOMA | pulled it directly out of my a$$ | A widely accepted method for obtaining a speedy quotation or prediction. |
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| PIN | P-type/intrinsic/N-type | A diode structure often used as an RF control component. |
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| PIND | particle impact noise detection | A way to determine of you have any loose stuff inside your sealed-up module. |
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| PLD | pulsed laser deposition | A laser is used to blast a plume of material that is transferred to a heated substrate. |
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| PLL | phase locked loop | -- |
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| PMC | perfect magetic conductor | See our page on EM fundamentals. |
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| PNA | programmable network analyzer | A PNA is a network analyzer that runs the Windows operating system instead of some proprietary interface written in embedded code. It's "programmable" in that you can install applications, network it like a PC, and use a thumb drive to get your data. Than |
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| POS | piece of s### | Like in the following want ad: 1989 Hyundai, POS, $500 or best offer. |
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| PPI | plan position indicator | -- |
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| PPM | parts per million | Used to express ratios that are often very much less than 1% |
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| PR | photo-resist | The material that is used used to pattern printed circuits. |
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| PRF | pulse repetition frequency | -- |
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| PSB | pink-slip blizzard | If you stay in microwave engineering long enough you will learn what this means... |
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| PSD | phase sensitive detector, power spectral density | -- |
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| PSIA | pounds per square inch, absolute | This is pressure, relative to a vacuum. |
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| PSIG | pounds per square inch, gauge | This is pressure, relative to room pressure. |
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| PSK | phase shift keying | A method of transmitting data by modulating the phase of a signal. |
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| PTC | positive temperature coefficient | A thermistor with resistance value increasing with temperature. |
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| PTFE | poly tetra-flouro ethelene | A dielectric material invented in 1938 by Dr. Roy Plunkett at Dupont, used in most RF coax cables and many soft boards. |
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| PTH | plated-through hole | -- |
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| PWB | printed wiring board | -- |
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| PWM | pulse-width modulation | -- |
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