Proceeding of 2018 IEEE International Conference on Current Trends toward Converging Technologies, Coimbatore, India

GaAs FET Based LNA Design for WiMAX

Applications
Makesh Iyer T. Shanmuganantham
Electronics Engineering Department Electronics Engineering Department
Pondicherry University Pondicherry University
Puducherry, India Puducherry, India
[email protected] [email protected]

Abstract — This work deals with the designing of low proper matching networks for efficient impedance
noise amplifier for WiMAX 802.16e application matching and maximum power transfer, are the vital
considering 3.4 to 3.6 GHz frequency band with parameters that determine the performance of a low noise
3.5GHz as the center frequency. The amplifier is amplifier though there is a trade-off between the gain,
designed using GaAs FET MGF – 1303 of Mitsubishi stability and noise figure of the design.
Technologies with different stabilization techniques to
improve stability of potentially unstable device. It is In this paper we have managed to design a low noise
observed that the noise immunity is more in drain amplifier for WiMAX application using GaAs FET by
resistance stabilized LNA design than in other balancing the trade-off parameters.
technique which resulted in noise figure of 0.211 dB
and power gain of 15.116 dB. The comparative II.DESIGN ASPECTS
analysis of the LNA design is discussed in this paper.
Advanced Design System (ADS) simulation tool is used
Keywords— LNA, WiMAX, VSWR, GaAs FET, power for designing the low noise amplifier. The active device
gain, noise figure, s parameters. used in the design is from S - parameter library which
works on fixed bias i.e. the s parameters are fixed for a
I.INTRODUCTION particular bias point of the device.

WiMAX i.e. Wireless Interoperability for Microwave The Low Noise Amplifier is designed using GaAs FET
Access is one of the hot topic in today’s scenario because MGF- 1303 of Mitsubishi with different stability
it provides high data rate over a wide coverage area. improvement techniques which simultaneously improves
There are many frequencies in which WiMAX operates the device stability and makes it unconditionally stable,
like 2.3 GHz, 2.5 GHz, 3.3 GHz, 3.5 GHz, and 5.8 GHz in gain of the amplifier with less effect on noise figure [6].
2 to 11 GHz band [1]. The advantage of lower frequency
WiMAX is less susceptibility to attenuation and hence Theoretically stability of the device is checked using B
minimum signal loss that improves coverage area. But at and K - |Δ| test which is discussed in [7]. The condition
the same time its data rate is less and number of users per for stability is that if K > 1, |∆| < 1 and B = +ve, then the
channel i.e. channel capacity is less. device is stable for certain conditions and if K < 1 then
device is potentially unstable. This condition will tend the
M.H. Misran, A. Salleh, et al, designed low noise device to oscillate.
amplifiers with different techniques like with VIAS,
without VIAS, with feedback, balanced LNA for WiMAX In later stages there was another parameter introduced to
application using pHEMT and obtained the power gain check the stability of the active device for stable operation
and noise figure described in [2]. Chang-Hsi Wu and given by,
Kuan-Lin Liu implemented the low noise amplifier using 2
1  |S |
complementary current reuse topology and obtained noise  11 (1)
figure of 4.6 dB and gain of 11 dB [3]. Abolfazl Zokaei, | S22  S11* |  | S12S21 |
Amir Amirabadi designed a tunable multi – band LNA
using active post distortion technique to improve LNA For the device to operate in unconditionally stable region
linearity and provide optimum noise figure and obtained the value of µ should be greater than 1 (µ > 1) where ∆ is
noise figure of 3 dB with gain of 12.95 dB [4]. Hsuan-ling given as,
Kao, Bai-Hong Wei, etal used the AlGaN/GaN HEMT for   S11S 22  S12S 21 (2)
designing the cascade topology LNA and obtained
minimum noise figure of 3.3 dB [5]. These work implies If µ < 1 then device is potentially unstable. This condition
that the good power gain, optimum noise figure and will tend the device to oscillate. In this case the gain of

978-1-5386-3702-9/18/$31.00 © 2018 IEEE 1

 Proceeding of 2018 IEEE International Conference on Current Trends toward Converging Technologies, Coimbatore, India

the device will be maximum stable gain (MSG) and if the 2 2

B  1  |S 11|  |S 22|  ||
2

device is stable then the gain will be maximum allowable

2 2 2
gain (MAG) which are mathematically explained in [8]. B  1  |0.671|  |0.614|  |0.471| = 0.851 that’s
+ve
Here the circuit is designed using the distributed 2
components i.e. transmission line equivalent of the 1  |S |
 11 can be obtained as follows,
lumped components because of the fact that is described | S22  S11* |  | S12S21 |
in [9]. The 50 ohm terminations are provided for
calculating the S parameters of the network. S11* = [(0.471∟-87.206) x (0.671∟55.432)]
= 0.316∟31.77
The substrate used for designing the microstrip matching | S22 - S11*| = |0.614∟-43.205 - 0.316∟31.77| = 0.310
2
components is RT Duroid 5880 of Rogers Corporation 1  |0.671|
which has εr of 2.2, tanδ of 0.0009, substrate height (h) of  = 1.318 that’s > 1.
0.310  0.107
1.6 mm, metal thickness (t) of 0.035 mm, metal being
copper conductivity (ζ) of 5.8 x e7.
Hence this result of µ > 1, K > 1, B = +ve, |∆| < 1 conveys
that the device tends to be unconditionally stable and the
Voltage Standing wave ratio (VSWR) is another parameter
gate resistance is an appropriate method to make the
which determines the amount of reflections that occurs in a
device unconditionally stable.
microwave circuit due to improper impedance matching. It
is represented in the form of reflection co-efficient which
Another technique to improve stability is to connect a
is mathematically described in [10].
series resistance to the drain terminal of FET which is
shown in fig. 2.
The range of VSWR values is 1 < VSWR < ∞ for the
corresponding reflection co-efficient of 0 < Г < 1.

III.PROPOSED DESIGN

The low noise amplifier designed with source inductive

degeneration for this application is shown in fig. 1.

Fig. 2. Proposed LNA with drain resistor RD

µ is calculated for the above design with the help of the

obtained s parameters,
S11 = 0.857∟-65.528, S12 = 0.047∟37.040,
S21 = 2.258∟111.74, S22 = 0.605∟-29.114
Fig. 1. Proposed LNA with gate resistor RG = [(0.857∟-65.528) x (0.605∟-29.114) –
(0.047∟37.04) x
µ is calculated for the above design with the help of the (2.258∟111.74)] = 0.572∟-85.02
obtained s parameters,
1  | S |  | S |  ||
2 2 2
S11 = 0.671∟-55.432, S12 = 0.047∟33.79, 11 22
S21 = 2.288∟108.49, S22 = 0.614∟-43.205 K
2 | S12S21 |
= [(0.671∟-55.432) x (0.614∟-43.205) – 2 2 2
(0.047∟33.79) x 1  |0.857|  |0.605|  |0.572|
K = 1.069
(2.288∟108.49)] = 0.471∟-87.206 2 * 0.106
1  | S |  | S |  ||
2 2 2 2 2 2
11 22 B  1  |S 11|  |S 22|  ||
K
2 | S12S21 | 2 2 2
B  1  |0.857|  |0.605|  |0.572| = 1.041 that’s
2 2 2
1  |0.671|  |0.614|  |0.471| +ve
K = 1.84
2 * 0.107

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 Proceeding of 2018 IEEE International Conference on Current Trends toward Converging Technologies, Coimbatore, India

2
1  |S |
 11 can be obtained as follows,
| S22  S11* |  | S12S21 |
S11* = [(0.572∟-85.02) x (0.857∟65.528)]
= 0.49∟-19.492
| S22 - S11*| = 0.147
2
1  |0.857|
 = 1.049 that’s > 1.
0.147  0.106

µ > 1 for drain resistance LNA shows that the device is

unconditionally stable. The various parameters that are
found for the designed low noise amplifiers with gate and Fig. 5. VSWR
drain resistors are discussed in results section.
The S parameters of the designed LNA obtained are shown
III.RESULTS in fig. 6 and 7 respectively. The S11 is -5.837 dB, S21 is
10.255 dB, S12 is -23.427 dB and S22 is -16.397 dB.
The power gain and noise figure obtained for the gate
resistive LNA are 10.255 dB and 5.241 dB as shown in
fig. 3 and 4 respectively.

Fig. 6. S11 and S21 parameters

Fig. 3. Power Gain

Fig. 7. S12 and S22 parameters

Fig. 4. Noise Figure

The VSWR obtained for the source (VSWR1) and load

(VSWR2) matching is shown in fig. 5 which are 3.087 and
1.357 at input and output side respectively. The less values
of VSWR i.e. nearby 1 signifies that the amount of
reflections is very less i.e. negligible but here the input
VSWR is more higher which makes this technique
inappropriate.

Fig. 8. Power Gain

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 Proceeding of 2018 IEEE International Conference on Current Trends toward Converging Technologies, Coimbatore, India

The power gain and noise figure obtained for the drain
resistive LNA are 15.116 dB and 0.211 dB as shown in fig.
8 and 9 respectively.

Fig. 12. S12 and S22 parameters

TABLE 1. SIMULATION RESULTS OF PROPOSED DESIGNS

Techniques S21 / G NF S11
Single stage 12.37 1.023 -5
Fig. 9. Noise Figure
Feedback with VIA 12.78 1.025 NM#
[2] Feedback without
11.76 1.027 NM#
VIA
Balanced LNA 11.81 1.318 -9
[3] (cascade) 11 4.6 -12
[4] (cascode) 12.95 3 -10.3
[5] (cascode) 14.4 3.3 -15
Proposed RG LNA 10.255 5.241 -5.837
-
RD LNA 15.116 0.211
47.415
NM# - Not Measured, G – Power Gain
Fig. 10. VSWR
IV. CONCLUSION
The VSWR obtained for the source (VSWR1) and load
(VSWR2) matching is shown in fig. 10 which are 1.009 The results of drain resistive LNA after implementation in
and 1.025 at input and output side respectively. The less ADS is presented in this paper which proves to be
values of VSWR i.e. nearby 1 signifies that the amount of efficient and optimum LNA since its power gain obtained
reflections is very less i.e. negligible. is 15.116 dB. The S11 obtained is -47.415 dB and S12 is -
18.566 dB. The VSWR obtained is 1.009 at input side and
1.025 at output side which is nearby value equal to one
that shows the amount of reflections being less and
maximum power can be transferred. Also the noise figure
obtained is 0.211 dB that shows very high noise
immunity. Further to improve the gain of the amplifier
with minimal trade-off of noise figure cascading
techniques can be used to implement multistage low noise
amplifier.

REFERENCES
Fig. 11. S11 and S21 parameters [1]. https://www.fcc.gov/general/wimax-applications-public-
safety.
The S parameters of the designed LNA obtained are shown [2]. M.H. Misran, A. Salleh, et al, “Design of Low Noise
in fig. 11 and 12 respectively. The S11 is -47.415 dB, S21 is Amplifier for WiMAX Application,” IOSR Journal of
15.116 dB, S12 is -18.566 dB and S22 is -38.123 dB. Electrical and Electronics Engineering, vol. 6, Issue 1,
May - June 2013, pp. 87-96.
[3]. Chang-Hsi Wu and Kuan-Lin Liu, et al, “Design of a
Low-Noise Amplifier using Complementary and
Current-Reused Technology,” International Conference
on Microwave and Millimeter Wave Technology, May 5-
8, 2012.

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 Proceeding of 2018 IEEE International Conference on Current Trends toward Converging Technologies, Coimbatore, India

on Circuits and Systems, December 20-21, 2017.

[8]. Makesh Iyer, T Shanmuganantham, “Design of LNA for
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Micro-Electronics, Electromagnetics and
Telecommunications, 2018. (Accepted)
[7]. Makesh Iyer, T Shanmuganantham, “LNA Design for
WLAN Applications,” IEEE International Conference