Highly Adaptive Reconfigurable Receiver Front-end for 5G and Satellite Applications

Uko, Mfonobong Charles, Ekpo, Sunday ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-9219-3759, Enahoro, Sunday, Unnikrishnan, Rahul, Elias, Fanuel and Al-Yasir, Yasir (2025) Highly Adaptive Reconfigurable Receiver Front-end for 5G and Satellite Applications. Technologies, 13 (4). 124. ISSN 2227-7080

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Abstract

The deployment of fifth-generation (5G) and beyond-5G wireless communication systems necessitates advanced transceiver architectures to support high data rates, spectrum efficiency, and energy-efficient designs. This paper presents a highly adaptive reconfigurable receiver front-end (HARRF) designed for 5G and satellite applications, integrating a switchable low noise amplifier (LNA) and a single pole double throw (SPDT) switch. The HARRF architecture supports both X-band (8–12 GHz) and K/Ka-band (23–28 GHz) operations, enabling seamless adaptation between radar, satellite communication, and millimetre-wave (mmWave) 5G applications. The proposed receiver front-end employs a 0.15 μm pseudomorphic high electron mobility transistor (pHEMT) process, optimized through a three-stage cascaded LNA topology. A switched-tuned matching network is utilized to achieve reconfigurability between X-band and K/Ka-band. Performance evaluations indicate that the X-band LNA achieves a gain of 23–27 dB with a noise figure below 7 dB, whereas the K/Ka-band LNA provides 23–27 dB gain with a noise figure ranging from 2.3–2.6 dB. The SPDT switch exhibits low insertion loss and high isolation, ensuring minimal signal degradation across operational bands. Network analysis and scattering parameter extractions were conducted using advanced design system (ADS) simulations, demonstrating superior return loss, power efficiency, and impedance matching. Comparative analysis with state-of-the-art designs shows that the proposed HARRF outperforms existing solutions in terms of reconfigurability, stability, and wideband operation. The results validate the feasibility of the proposed reconfigurable RF front-end in enabling efficient spectrum utilization and energy-efficient transceiver systems for next-generation communication networks.