Design and measurement of an integrated wideband radio frequency low-noise amplifier for terrestrial digital television applications

摘要

In this article, the design and measurement details of a wideband low-noise amplifier (LNA) are presented. The LNA was successfully designed to operate over very high and ultra high frequency (VHF and UHF) ranges according to Digital TV (DVB-T) specifications. The novelty of the design lies in the achievement of low noise figure (NF) and high reverse isolation level across a wide bandwidth despite the resistive feedback topology. The latter was required in order to integrate the front-end block with a direct-conversion receiver. A measured large-signal compression point of P_(1dB) = - 10 dBm and a small-signal gain of 16 dB with gain flatness of < 1 dB ripple, have all met commercial specifications tested over corners. The NF achieved was better than that specified and was less than 2 dB across the bandwidth. This front-end block was implemented in a commercial 0.25 μm Si BiCMOS process (f_T = 20 GHz). The article discusses the measurement uncertainties imposed by the wide bandwidth, particularly in NF measurements, and the techniques adopted in this work to mitigate the errors imposed.