Congratuations MAX2606, you are the Chip of the Week!

This week’s CotW is the MAX2606, a little IC I’ve used in a bunch of projects. This chip is part of a family of FM modulator ICs, produced by Maxim. The MAX2606 in particular has a range of 80-100MHz, right in the audio FM band. Basically, If you’ve ever wanted to stick an FM (audio) transmitter in something, this is a cheap/small/simple solution. Theres even a great app. note with a working schematic.

• Pros: Super cheap, super small, works great, 3V
• Cons: SOT-23: a bit too small, can’t buy it from traditional outlets (but you can sample nearly as many as you want from Maxim), a bit quiet

Notes:

• Don’t forget to put 1% resistors in the tuning: the drift will kill you!
• Attenuate the input to like 50mVpp (?)

Tune in next week for another Chip of the Week!