LiU-ITN-TEK-A--12/085--SE
Design and Performance Analysis of Low-Noise Amplifier with Band-Pass Filter for 2.4-2.5 GHz Muneeb Mehmood Abbasi Mohammad Abdul Jabbar
2012-12-12
Department of Science and Technology Institutionen för teknik och naturvetenskap Linköping University Linköpings universitet nedewS ,gnipökrroN 47 106-ES 47 ,gnipökrroN nedewS 106 47 gnipökrroN LiU-ITN-TEK-A--12/085--SE
Design and Performance Analysis of Low-Noise Amplifier with Band-Pass Filter for 2.4-2.5 GHz Examensarbete utfört i Elektroteknik vid Tekniska högskolan vid Linköpings universitet Muneeb Mehmood Abbasi Mohammad Abdul Jabbar
Handledare Adriana Serban Examinator Magnus Karlsson
Norrköping 2012-12-12 Upphovsrätt
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© Muneeb Mehmood Abbasi, Mohammad Abdul Jabbar
Design and Performance Analysis of Low-Noise Amplifier with Band-Pass Filter for 2.4-2.5 GHz
Mohammad Abdul Jabbar Muneeb Mehmood Abbasi
Supervisor: Dr. Adriana Serban Examiner: Dr. Magnus Karlsson
Department of Science and Technology Linköping University, SE-601 74 Norrköping, Sweden
Norrköping 2012
Abstract
Low power wireless electronics is becoming more popular due to durability, portability and small dimension. Especially, electronic devices in instruments, scientific and medical (ISM) band is convenient from the spectrum regulations and technology availability point of view. In the communication engineering society, to make a robust transceiver is always a matter of challenges for the better performance.
However, in this thesis work, a new approach of design and performance analysis of Low-Noise Amplifier with Band-Pass filter is performed at 2.45 GHz under the communication electronics research group of Institute of Science and Technology (ITN). Band-Pass Filtered Low-Noise Amplifier is designed with lumped components and transmission lines. Performances of different designs are compared with respect to noise figure, gain, input and output reflection coefficient. In the design process, a single stage LNA is designed with amplifier, ATF-58143. Maximally flat band-pass (BPF) filters were designed with lumped components and distributed elements. Afterwards, BPF is integrated with the LNA at the front side of LNA to get a compact Band-Pass Filtered Low-Noise Amplifier with good performance.
Advanced Design System (ADS) tool was used for design and simulation, and each design was tuned to get the optimum value for noise figure, gain and input reflection coefficient. LNA stand-alone gives acceptable value of noise figure and gain but the bandwidth was too wide compared to specification. Band-Pass Filtered Low-Noise Amplifier with lumped components gives also considerable values of noise and gain. But the gain was not so flat and the bandwidth was also wide. Then, Band-Pass Filtered Low-Noise Amplifier was designed with transmission lines where the optimum value of noise figure and gain was found. The gain was almost flat over the whole band, i.e., 2.4-2.5 GHz compared to LNA stand-alone and Band-Pass Filtered Low-Noise Amplifier designed with lumped components. It is observed that deviations of results from schematic to layout level are considerable, i.e., electromagnetic simulation is needed to predict the Band-Pass Filtered Low-Noise Amplifier performance.
Prototype of LNA, Band-Pass Filtered Low-Noise Amplifier with lumped and transmission lines are made at ITN’s PCB laboratory. Due to unavailability of exact values of Murata components and for some other technical reasons, the measured values of Band-Pass Filtered Low-Noise Amplifier with lumped components and transmission lines are deviated compared to predicted values from simulation.
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Acknowledgement
With all praises to the almighty and by His blessings we have finally completed this thesis.
We would like to express our gratitude to Dr. Magnus Karlsson who has graciously provided us his valuable time whenever we required his assistance. His counseling, supervision and suggestions were always encouraging and it motivated us to complete the job at hand. He will always be regarded as a great mentor for us.
We would also like to thank Dr. Adriana Serban for her valuable comments and suggestions.
Finally the unwavering support from our loving families was an inspiration for us and we are extremely grateful to them.
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Dedicated… To parents, sisters and brothers
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Table of Contents
1 Introduction...... 1 1.1 Background and Motivation ...... 1 1.2 Objectives ...... 2 1.3 Outline of the Thesis ...... 2 2 Theoretical Background ...... 4 2.1 ISM Band ...... 4 2.1.1 ISM Band Operation ...... 4 2.1.2 Application ...... 5 2.2 Radio Receiver Basics ...... 5 2.3 Network Analysis ...... 6 2.3.1 Two-Port Network ...... 6 2.3.2 S-Parameter ...... 6 2.4 Types of Noises ...... 7 2.4.1 Thermal Noise ...... 7 2.4.2 Shot Noise ...... 8 2.4.3 Flicker Noise ...... 8 2.5 Noise Figure ...... 8 2.6 Active Device: FET ...... 9 2.7 Design Process of BFP-LNA ...... 9 2.7.1 Band-Pass Filter ...... 10 2.7.2 Low-Noise-Amplifier (LNA) ...... 14 2.7.3 Matching Network between BPF and LN A ...... 16 3 Design of LNA ...... 18 3.1 Design Specification ...... 18 3.2 Transistor Selection ...... 18 3.2.1 Features ...... 18 3.2.2 Applications ...... 18 3.3 Q-Point Determination ...... 19 3.4 DC Biasing Network ...... 20 3.5 Design of LNA with S2P File ...... 20 3.5.1 Stability ...... 21 3.5.2 Using Ideal Components without Biasing Network ...... 22 3.5.3 Using non-Ideal Components without Biasing Network ...... 24 3.5.4 Using Ideal Components with Biasing Network ...... 26 3.5.5 Using non-Ideal Components with Biasing Network ...... 29
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3.6 Design of LNA with Electrical Model ...... 31 3.6.1 Design with Ideal Components...... 31 3.6.2 Design with non-Ideal Components ...... 34 3.7 Layout Design of LNA ...... 36 3.7.1 Design with non-Ideal Components ...... 37 4 Design of BPF-LNA ...... 40 4.1 Design Specifications of BPF ...... 40 4.2 Design of Maximally Flat BPF ...... 40 4.2.1 Design with Lumped Components ...... 40 4.2.2 Design with Distributed Elements ...... 42 4.3 Design of BPF-LNA with Lumped Components ...... 47 4.3.1 Schematic Design with Ideal Components ...... 47 4.3.1 Layout Design ...... 49 4.4 Design of BPF-LNA with Distributed Elements ...... 52 4.4.1 Design of Schematic ...... 52 4.4.2 Design of Layout ...... 54 5 Prototypes & Measurements ...... 58 5.1 Prototype of LNA ...... 58 5.1.1 Measurement Results ...... 59 5.2 Prototype of BPF-LNA with Lumped Elements...... 60 5.2.1 Measurement Results ...... 61 5.3 Prototype of BPF-LNA with Distributed Elements ...... 63 5.3.1 Measurement Results ...... 64 5.4 Comparison of Layouts and Measured Results ...... 65 6 Conclusion and Future Works ...... 66 6.1 Conclusion ...... 66 6.2 Future Works...... 66 7 References ...... 68
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List of Abbreviations
ISM Instruments Scientific and Medical WLAN Wireless Local Area Network LNA Low-Noise-Amplifier BPF Band-Pass Filter IMN Input Matching Network OMN Output Matching Network LPD433 Low Power Device, 433 MHz PMR446 Private Mobile Radio, 446 MHz CEPT European Conference of Postal and Telecommunications Administrations ETSI European Telecommunications Standards Institute ITU International Telecommunication Union ITU-R The ITU Radio-communication Sector FCC Federal Communications Commission WDCT Digital Cordless Telecommunications RFID Radio Frequency Identification HiperLAN High Performance Radio LAN Wi-Fi Wireless Fidelity PCB Printed Circuit Board PCS Personal Communications Service WCDMA Wideband CDMA ADS Advanced Design System WLL Wireless Local Loop ITN Department of Science and Technology SMD Surface Mounted Device
vi CHAPTER 1
1 Introduction
Demand of wireless communication systems with robust transmitting and receiving performance is growing tremendously due to the modern technology intense society. Frequency spectrum is a natural resource as well as limited and need to be used very keenly with high attention of distribution. Instruments Scientific and Medical (ISM) band is unlicensed and becomes most popular because of its free uses. The engineering community is giving high attention as well to design devices which is compatible with this band. Cordless phone, Wireless LAN, Bluetooth, Wi-Fi all are operated in the 2.4 to 2.5 GHz.
In wireless communications, receivers need to be able to detect and amplify incoming low- power signals without adding much noise. Therefore, to filter out the unwanted signal, a Band- Pass filter (BPF) is placed before low noise amplifier (LNA)’s placement. A low noise amplifier (LNA) is often used as the first stage of these receivers. To design an LNA integrated with Band-Pass Filter (BPF), with trade-off or suitable compromise between gain and noise is always a matter of challenge.
1.1 Background and Motivation
Thesis work is a partial requirement of Master of Science in Wireless Networks and Electronics at Department of Science and Technology (ITN), Linköping University. In this thesis work, integration of Band-Pass filter with LNA will be performed where; BPF will be designed by both lumped and distributed elements. While BPF is designed with lumped components, no need to design an input matching network (IMN) in the front side of LNA, matching network between BPF and LNA will be fixed as IMN in front of LNA. In figure 1-1 a typical receiver block diagram is shown where, the BPF and LNA are put in the same block i.e. BPF will be integrated with LNA and this integrated block will be acting as a single block.
Electronic devices such as microwave oven to Bluetooth all are operated in ISM band. To keep in mind the scarcity of electromagnetic spectrum, design of equipments in ISM band is convenient for the engineering and technological entrepreneur as it is free of cost. However, in
1 CHAPTER 1 this thesis work, it is supposed to design and analysis the performance of band-pass filtered low- noise amplifier (BPF-LNA) at 2.45 GHz with lumped and distributed elements.
Figure. 1-1 Block diagram of super-heterodyne receiver with combined BPF-LNA [1]
In general, BPF and LNA are different blocks in a receiver. Here it is tried to compact BPF with LNA in a single block which would be cost effective and have less circuit complexity and the dimension of the receiver will be reduced as well. Making a larger antenna is not cost effective rather putting an LNA to boost up the antenna signal to compensate for the feedline losses going from the antenna (outdoor) to the receiver (indoor). To design BPF-LNA, at first, it was needed to choose such a transistor which gives maximum gain and minimum noise figure (NF). ATF- 58143 is selected for the whole design process.
It is highly expected that the outcome of the thesis would be highly appreciated by the industry people due to its robustness and cost effectiveness. LNA is being used in many applications such as ISM radio, cellular handset, GPS receiver, cordless phone, satellite communication and wireless LAN etc.
1.2 Objectives
The main objectives of this thesis work are following: • Literature review on BPF and LNA • Selection of suitable substrate for BPF-LNA • Design and simulation of all the design in Advanced Design Tools (ADS) • Optimization of LNA and BPF-LNA • Fabrication of prototype of LNA and BPF-LNAs and performance analysis • Evaluation of noise figure, gain, input and output reflection coefficient
1.3 Outline of the Thesis Chapter 1 Describes a brief idea about the thesis background and motivation Chapter 2 Theoretical background consists of literature review Chapter 3 Design of LNA with ATF-58143is described in details Chapter 4 Design of BPF-LNA with the maximally flat BPF is depicted elaborately.
2 CHAPTER 1
Chapter 5 Fabrication process and comparison of results of BPF-LNAs are shown Chapter 6 Concludes the thesis works and expectation of future works within this topic
3 CHAPTER 2
2 Theoretical Background
To have a better understanding and supporting of the thesis work, a theoretical background literature is included in this part. Relevant theories are described briefly.
2.1 ISM Band
The ISM radio band is radio band (a small portion of radio spectrum) which is reserved internationally for the use of radio frequency (RF) energy for the purpose of industrial, scientific and medical equipments other than communications [2]. In general, communications equipment operating in these bands must have to tolerate any interference generated by the ISM equipments and for the case of ISM device operation, users have no regulatory protection. In spite of the intention of the original allocation, the uses of these bands become very popular for short-range communication and low power communication electronics systems.
2.1.1 ISM Band Operation
ITU-R has defined the ISM bands in 5.138, 5.150, and 5.280 of the radio regulations [3]. Due to the national radio regulations of spectrum management, individual countries' use of the bands designated in these sections may differ. Some communication devices which are using the ISM bands, it must tolerate any interference from ISM equipments. Normally unlicensed operations are allowed to use these bands, because the unlicensed operations are supposed to tolerate any external or internal interference from other devices. However, the ISM bands do have the licensed operations. Because of high possibilities of harmful interferences, licensed use of the ISM bands is not high. By the part 18 of the Federal Communications Commission (FCC), uses of ISM bands are being governed in USA, at the same time, part 15 contains the rules and regulations for unlicensed communication devices even though those use the ISM frequency bands [4].
According to European commission’s short range device regulations, the use of the ISM band is being governed in Europe [5]. In most of the European zones, for license-free voice communication, LPD433 band is allowed using analog frequency modulation [6].
4 CHAPTER 2
2.1.2 Application
Microwave oven is one of most common examples of ISM device which operates at 2.45 GHz. Lately ISM bands have been shared with license-free communications applications for example 915 MHz and 2.450 GHz are for wireless sensor networks. 915 MHz, 2.450 GHz and 5.800 GHz are for wireless LNA and cordless phones respectively [3]. In radio frequency identification (RFID) applications such as biometric and contactless smart cards, ISM bands are being used widely [3].
Some low power remote control toys, gas powered cars and miniature aircraft use 2.4 GHz band range. Worldwide Digital Cordless Telecommunications (WDCT) is an ISM band technology which uses the 2.4 GHz radio spectrum. Wireless LAN devices use the following bands [3]:
• Bluetooth 2450 MHz band • HIPERLAN 5800 MHz band • IEEE 802.11/Wi-Fi 2450 MHz and 5800 MHz bands
2.2 Radio Receiver Basics
The super-heterodyne receiver is one of the most popular forms of receiver which is widely used today in a variety of applications from broadcast receivers to two way radio communications links as well as many mobile radio communications systems [1]. At the early stage of radio communication technology development, the super-heterodyne receiver offers many advantages in many applications.
Figure. 2-1 Block diagram of super-heterodyne receiver [1]
In this section, a typical block diagram (figure 2-1) of wireless receiver is drawn. According to this figure, the typical functionalities will be described shortly. The basic function of receiver is to recover the transmitted baseband signal by the reversing the functions of transmitter. An important component of receiver is antenna which receives the radiated electromagnetic waves from some other sources of broad frequency ranges [1]. Then the signal passes through a band- pass filter which provides some selectivity by filtering out received signals with unwanted
5 CHAPTER 2 frequencies and passing some signals of desired frequency band. The desired signal from BPF will pass through a low-noise-amplifier (LNA). The basic function of LNA is to amplify the very weak received signal at the same time to minimize the noise power which is added to the received signals [1]. By putting a BPF in before LNA reduces the possibilities to add other interfering signals to the desired signal, this is how, the amplifier cannot be overloaded with other high power signals. The output from LNA is feed to a mixer which is used to down- convert the received radio signal to a lower frequency signal. A local oscillator (LO) is set at the level of the frequency which is near to the RF input and the output of the mixer will be relatively low and it could be filtered out by the IF band-pass filter [1]. The high gain IF amplifier raises the power level of the filtered signal thus the baseband information can be recovered without distortion [1].
2.3 Network Analysis In this section, two-port network and S-parameter will be discussed briefly.
2.3.1 Two-Port Network A two-port network is an electrical circuit which consists of four terminals to be connected with other external network or circuit [7]. It is represented by four variables such as at the input port voltage, current, and at the output port voltage, and current, [8]. Figure 2-3 shows a two-port network which has four terminals.
Figure. 2- 2 Two-port scattering network with source and load [9]
2.3.2 S-Parameter Scattering parameters or S-parameters have significant role in RF system design. RF engineers use S-parameter to define the relationship between input-output of an electrical network in terms of incident and reflected power waves [10]. According to figure 2-2, an incident normalized power wave, and a reflected normalized power wave,
The mathematical expression for incident and reflected normalized power wave can be written as: (1) = +
6 CHAPTER 2