An ultra-low noise pseudomorphic high electron mobility transistor (pHEMT)-based low noise amplifier using low temperature co-fire ceramic (LTCC) technique

Abstract

Purpose

This study aims to present two stage pseudomorphic high electron mobility transistor-based low noise amplifier (LNA) designed using low temperature co-fire ceramic (LTCC) technique for ultra-high frequency (UHF) band. The LNA operates in the frequency range of (400∼500) MHz which is suitable for wireless communication applications.

Design/methodology/approach

This LNA uses resistive capacitive (RC) feedback in the first stage to have wide bandwidth and interstage network for gain enhancement. By using external RC feedback, stability is improved and noise matching in the input stage is isolated by decoupling inductor. The excellent performance parameters including gain, noise figure (NF), wideband and linearity are attained without affecting the power consumption, compactness and cost of the proposed design.

Findings

Simulation is carried out using advanced design software and the result shows that gain of 33.7 dB, NF 0.416 dB and 1 dB compression point (P_1dB) of 18.59 dBm are achieved with a supply voltage of 2.5 V. The return loss of input and output are −19.3 dB and −10.5 dB, respectively. From the above aforementioned parameters, it is confirmed that the proposed LNA is a promising candidate for receivers where high gain and very low NF are always demandable with good linearity for applications operating in the UHF band.

Originality/value

The innovation of the proposed LNA is that the concurrent attainment of high gain, low NF, wideband, optimum input matching, good stability by RC feedback and interstage network using LTCC technique to achieve robustness, low cost and compactness to prove the applicability of design for wireless applications.

Citation

Bhuvaneshwari, S. and Kanthamani, S. (2022), "An ultra-low noise pseudomorphic high electron mobility transistor (pHEMT)-based low noise amplifier using low temperature co-fire ceramic (LTCC) technique", Circuit World, Vol. 48 No. 4, pp. 594-606. https://doi.org/10.1108/CW-10-2020-0275