Highly robust microwave low-noise amplifiers
Final Report Abstract
In radio receivers, the first component following the antenna is usually a low-noise amplifier (LNA). Its task is to amplify the typically very weak received input signal so that the inherent noise of the following electronics no longer represents a significant problem. This LNA is a delicate component, designed for very low received power and should also consume as little power as possible itself. However, a radio receiver does not only receive the desired signal. If there is a strong transmitter in its vicinity, the received power can easily exceed the intended power level by a factor of 1000. A common LNA will be destroyed in this case. Often the transmitting / receiving equipment itself transmits the strong signal, for example in case of a radar or a radio interface of a satellite. It is then necessary to protect the LNA from too much received power. Therefore, a protective circuit is commonly connected between the LNA and the antenna. It acts as an electronic fuse to short-circuit an excessively large signal at the antenna. However, this protective circuit cannot be integrated on a chip with the LNA. The system integration becomes more expensive, the setup large and heavy, and reliability suffers accordingly. In addition, a protection circuit attenuates the received signal and thus degrades the signal-to-noise ratio. It has been shown in the past that GaN-HEMT technology makes it possible to raise the maximum allowable input powers from typically 100 mW for a GaAs-based LNA to about 10 W for a GaN-based LNA. However, it should be noted that this success can be attributed to an improvement in the technology rather than in circuit topology. This is where this project started. A new circuit topology, in which the transistors are connected in series at the input, now not only increases robustness. It was shown that in the optimized case this is accompanied by only a moderate increase in the noise figure. Demonstrators at 5 and 10 GHz were manufactured as integrated circuits and characterized through measurement. Another important contribution of the project is the experimental investigation of the recovery time of the GaN-based LNAs after a pulse of high input power has decayed. Here, the relationship between deep level traps and recovery time was derived from pulsed dc measurements, and the dynamic small-signal behavior in response to a pulse of high input power was characterized.
Publications
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Characterization of the Impairment and Recovery of GaN-HEMTs in Low-Noise Amplifiers under Input Overdrive. 2021 IEEE MTT-S International Microwave Symposium (IMS), 515-518. IEEE.
Krause, S.; Beleniotis, P.; Bengtsson, O.; Rudolph, M. & Heinrich, W.
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Compact Stacked Rugged GaN Low-Noise Amplifier MMIC. 2021 IEEE International Conference on Microwaves, Antennas, Communications and Electronic Systems (COMCAS), 286-288. IEEE.
Kaule, Evelyne; Luo, Peng; Andrei, Cristina; Chevtchenko, Serguei A. & Rudolph, Matthias
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On the Influence of Transistor Dimensions on the Dispersive Behavior in AlGaN/GaN HEMT-Based PAs and Robust LNAs. 2022 IEEE/MTT-S International Microwave Symposium - IMS 2022, 914-917. IEEE.
Krause, Sascha; Zervos, Christos; Beleniotis, Petros; Ritter, Dan; Rudolph, Matthias & Heinrich, Wolfgang
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“A Novel System for Recovery Time Measurements of GaN- Based Low-Noise Amplifiers,” in: 2022 14th German Microwave Conference (GeMiC), May 2022, pp. 65–68
A. Tomaz, S. Gerlich, M. Rudolph & C. Andrei
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Compact Stacked Rugged GaN Low-Noise Amplifier MMIC under Input Power Overdrive Condition. 2023 18th European Microwave Integrated Circuits Conference (EuMIC), 9-12. IEEE.
Kaule, Evelyne; Luo, Peng; Chevtchenko, Serguei A.; Rudolph, Matthias & Andrei, Cristina
