Integrated Front End Serves Satcom Receivers

摘要

Microwave front ends are a critical part of any high-frequency receiver architecture. They downconvert incoming signals from an antenna and pass along lower-frequency intermediate-frequency (IF) signals for further processing, typically to an analog-to-digital converter (ADC). By adopting a modular approach, an integrated front end was developed for satellite-communications (satcom) applications from 12.75 to 13.25 GHz. This front end is compact in size while also achieving outstanding electrical performance. An effective front-end receiver design should provide good low-noise performance, as characterized by low receiver noise figure, and high gain at the frequencies of interest. For Ku-band satcom applications, a receiver front end was designed for use from 12.75 to 13.25 GHz. This consists of three independent function modules: a low-noise block downconverter (LNB) module, a local oscillator (LO) driver module, and a frequency downconversion module.