8-12 GHz pHEMT MMIC Low-Noise Amplifier for 5G and Fiber-Integrated Satellite Applications

Uko, Mfonobong and Ekpo, Sunday ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-9219-3759 (2020) 8-12 GHz pHEMT MMIC Low-Noise Amplifier for 5G and Fiber-Integrated Satellite Applications. International Review of Aerospace Engineering (IREASE), 13 (3). pp. 99-107. ISSN 1973-7459

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Abstract

The fifth-generation (5G) radio access technology promises to revolutionise integrated earth-space communications applications for ubiquitous, seamless and broadband services. The assigned sub-6 GHz and millimetre-wave 5G frequencies require the sensitivity of the receiver front-end subsystem(s) to detect and amplify the desired signal at a noise floor of less than -90 dBm for a cost-effective infrastructure deployment. This paper presents a broadband monolithic microwave integrated circuit (MMIC) low-noise amplifier (LNA) design based on a 0.15 µm gate length Indium Gallium Arsenide (InGaAs) pseudomorphic high electron mobility transistor (pHEMT) technology for 5G and fiber-integrated satellite communications applications. The designed three-stage 8-12 GHz LNA implements a common-source topology. The MMIC LNA subsystem performance demonstrates an industry-leading in-band gain response of 40 dB; a noise figure of 1.0 dB; and a power dissipation of 43 mW. For a constant bandwidth receiver, the sensitivity changes by approximately 1.5 dB over the operating satellite signal frequency. Similarly, for a variable bandwidth receiver, the sensitivity changes by approximately 1.5 dB over the channel bandwidth. Moreover, the sensitivity margin of the designed LNA is 40 dB and this holds a great promise for real-time radio access component-level reconfiguration applications.