Proceedings of the Fifth International Conference on Communication and Electronics Systems (ICCES 2020)

IEEE Conference Record # 48766; IEEE Xplore ISBN: 978-1-7281-5371-1

Restive Feedback Cascaded Ultra Low Noise Figure

and High Gain Ku-Band LNA for Space Application

B T Venkatesh Murthy Shreyank N P, Himanshu Ranjan, Vikram Power,

Assistant Professor Thanai M Kumar, Department of Electronics and
Department of Electronics and Communication Communication, Siddaganga Institute of Technology,
Siddaganga Institute of Technology, Tumakuru -572103, Tumakuru-572103, Karnataka(State), India
Karnataka (State), India 1si16ec090@sit.ac.in, 1si16ec028@sit.ac.in,
btv_murthy@sit.ac.in 1si16ec109@sit.ac.in, 1si16ec104@sit.ac.in

Abstract—— This paper presents high gain and too low noise
figure low noise amplifier (LNA). To achieve high gain and low
noise figure (NF), resistive feedback in conjunction with source
degeneration is used. Also, for achieving high gain, this work is
implemented with cascading two stages and for achieving low
noise figure, InGaAs HEMT technology is used and Ku Band at
14 GHz LNA is designed for space application. S imulated results
are NF of 0.76 dB, and gain of 30.67 dB. The less than -14 dB is
achieved for return losses of input and output. The S tability
Factor and Mu1 is greater than 4 at desired 14 GHz. The
amplifier biasing Vds, Ids is 2V and 10 mA respectively are
chosen. The Keysight Technology Advanced Design S ystem is
used for simulating all parameters. The LNA consumes low
power of 300 mW from the simulated values.
low noise level. The performance of the receiver will mainly
depend on the performance of the LNA [2].
CMOS, HBT, and MESFET have been using often design of
LNA. CMOS especially offer low power consumption with
lack of gain and NF. HBT gives moderate gain and more NF
and MESFET provides moderate gain and more NF. The LNA
is focused on obtaining low NF and high gain. An
InGaAsHEMT technology is selected since it is meeting
objectives of the design. However, design of Ku band LNA is
more challenging due to obtaining more gain and low NF [3-
7].
2. Design Goals

Keywords— Cascade, feedback, Indium Gallium Arsenide The cost effective LNA with low power consumption, high
(InGaAs) HEMT, Ku band receiver, low power, low voltage, low gain and low NF at 14 GHz frequency are the goals. The LNA
noise amplifier, matching, noise figure, space application, general block diagram is depicted in Figure 1.
wideband.

1. Introduction

There has been increasing trend in design of satellite

communication systems due to current trends in the global
security scenario. One of the major and vital parts of the
satellite in the space is space born receiver. LNA is extremely
important and sensitive device in the space born receiver.
These receivers will be playing vital role in severe jamming
and due to high input power from electromagnetic attacks and
no degradation is allowed. Due to carry huge information,
higher carrier frequency is required, so Ku-band is preferred.
The requirements of high data rate transmission necessitate the
Fig. 1. General Block Diagram of Amplifier.
use of high frequency band width and hence Ku -band is in
often used for satellite communication. GaAs, InP, and Si are
Noise figure (NF) will play a vital role in the design as
the current emerging technologies for the application of
performance of entire receiver will depend on the noise figure
commercial, government and defense. Owing to low noise and
of LNA. Once NF is less, it influences on the other blocks to
high power operation, InGaAs is often used for suitable for
perform well. InGaAs HEMT technology is used to get lowest
realization of RF front end modules [1].
NF. Gain is also another significant parameter. For achieving
A LNA is connected between receiver antenna and receiver.
gain more than 30 dB is really challenging task. For long life
The amplifying weak signal is basic function of the LNA that
of LNA, low power consumption is another interesting
has been received from antenna and maintain as high as
parameter. To have high gain, high linearity and low NF,
possible signal noise ratio (SNR) of the system, while keeping
resistive feedback in conjunction with source degenerated can

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 Proceedings of the Fifth International Conference on Communication and Electronics Systems (ICCES 2020)
IEEE Conference Record # 48766; IEEE Xplore ISBN: 978-1-7281-5371-1

used for implementation of LNA. This is implemented with

1 §g ·
InGaAsHEMT technology. The Table 1 shows LNA design Zin ( jZ )  jZ ( Lg  Ls )  ¨ m ¸ Ls (1)
goals. jZC gs ¨ C gs ¸
© ¹
Table 1. Design goals of LNA at 14 GHz.
By varying source degenerated inductor, stability of the
transistor is achieved. Optimum values of NF, gain, return
losses of input and output are achieved using proper tuning of
Parameter Specification at 14 GHz
the source degenerated inductor. Though source degenerated
Gain(S21 ) (dB) ≥ 25 inductor will act as negative feedback, it will influence little
NF (dB) ≤ 1 on the overall gain of the LNA.
Return Loss of input (S11 ) < -12
(dB) 4. Simulated Results
Return Loss of output < -12
(S22 ) (dB) To confirm the results of this topology, a LNA is designed and
Unconditional Stability (13 – 15) GHz simulated at 14 GHz using Keysight Technologies Advanced
Design Systems (ADS). The InGaAsHEMT transistor
Isolation loss (dB) < -25 (Mitsubishi’s MGF4937AM) is used with DC voltage of 2 V
Power Consumption < 500 and drain current of 10 mA. It is learnt that the frequency at 14
(mW) GHz transistor is stable and simulated result of stability is
shown in Figure 3. The good stability is achieved over
3. Design Approach frequency range of 12 to 18 GHz since design is focused at 14
GHz. It is noticed that the LNA achieved gain (S21 ) at
The Figure 2 shows the proposed LNA schematic diagram frequency of 14 GHz is 30.67 dB. The Figure 4 shows
with source degenerated inductor. The C1 and C3 capacitors are simulated result of gain (S21 ). Return losses of output and
used for blocking DC components at the source and load as input which are less than -14 dB and are shown in Figure 5
well as matching at input and output. To control NF and gain, and 6. It is noticed from the Figure 7 that the isolation loss
inductor at the source Ls1 is used, while inductor at the gate from the simulation is less than -53 dB and it also validates
Lg1 is cancelling out the imaginary part of the input that cascade methodology provides very good isolation. Figure
impedance. To achieve high gain, stage 1 and 2 are cascaded. 8 shows that simulated NF is obtained 0.760 dB at the
The capacitors C2 is used as inter-stage matching at stage 1 to designed frequency that are nearer to NF minimum of the
2. The R1 , R2, R3 , and R4 are used at T1 and T2 transistors gate transistor 0.30 to 0.37 dB. It confirms that transistor with all
and drain as biasing resistors, biasing resistors R5 , R6, R7 , and components have generated NF additional of 0.526 dB to the
R8 are used at T3 and T4 transistors [8-11].

Fig.2. Schematic of two stage proposed LNA.

Selection of suitable transistor is crucial part of the design. An

InGaAs HEMT transistor is used. For biasing, 2V (Vds ) and Fig.3. Stability Factor from Simulation results.
10 mA (Ids ) is used at each of the transistor (T1 , T2 , T3 and T4 ).
The proposed schematic diagram shown in Figure 2 that input overall circuit. The Table 2 shows comparison of specified
impedance is as follows [12-13]. design goals and simulated results at 14 GHz.

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 Proceedings of the Fifth International Conference on Communication and Electronics Systems (ICCES 2020)
IEEE Conference Record # 48766; IEEE Xplore ISBN: 978-1-7281-5371-1

Fig.4. Simulated results of gain (S21 (dB)). Fig.7. Simulated results of isolation loss (S12 (dB)).

Fig.5. Simulated results of input return loss (S11 (dB)). Fig.8. Simulated result of Noise Figure.
4. Conclusions

A Ku band LNA at 14 GHz is designed with low NF, high

Fig.6. Simulated results of output return loss (S22 (dB)).
gain, and low power consumption for defense application. For
simulating LNA, super low noise InGaAsHEMT technology is
used and Mitsubishi’s MGF 4937AM transistor is used for
demonstrating LNA. In this work, resistive feedback in
conjunction with degenerated source inductor with input and
output matching has been demonstrated in improving the NF
and gain. The gain of the LNA is improved with cascaded two
stages. The power matching has been done with input and
output matching. It is learnt from the simulated results that
LNA has a gain of 30.67 dB, NF of 0.760 dB. The simulated
results show that return losses of output (S22 ) and input (S11 )
are less than -14 dB. The unconditionally stability designed
LNA is obtained from 12 to 18 GHz and LNA consumes
power of 300 mW. The designed LNA has good isolation loss
less than -53 dB. The simulated results and design goals are
better matched and simulated results are confirmed that LNA
designed is best suitable for defense application.

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 Proceedings of the Fifth International Conference on Communication and Electronics Systems (ICCES 2020)
IEEE Conference Record # 48766; IEEE Xplore ISBN: 978-1-7281-5371-1

[7] G. O. Arican, B. Dokmetas, N. Akcam and E. Yazgan, "28 -36 GHz MMIC
Table 2. Comparison of the specified design goals and LNA Design for Satellite Applications," 2019 11th International
simulated results at 14 GHz Conference on Electrical and Electronics Engineering (ELECO), Bursa,
T urkey, 2019, pp. 726-729.
Parameter Specification Simulated Results [8] B.T . Venkatesh Murthy and I. Srinivasa Rao, “ Design of narrow band
at 14 GHz
UHF low noise amplifier for wind profilers,” in Microwave and Optical
Gain(S21 ) (dB) ≥ 25 30.67
Technology Letter, vol. 57, no. 3, pp. 600-603, March 2015.
NF (dB) ≤ 1 0.760
[9] B.T . Venkatesh Murthy and I. Srinivasa Rao, “ Highly linear dual
Return Loss of Input < -12 -14.31
capacitive feedback LNA for L- Band atmospheric radars ,” in Journal of
(S11 ) (dB)
Return Loss of < -12 -16.83 electromagnetic waves and applications , vol. 30, no. 5, pp. 612-625, Feb.
Output (S22 ) (dB) 2016.
Unconditional (13–15) GHz (12-18) GHz [10] B.T . Venkatesh Murthy and I. Srinivasa Rao, “ High- gain sub-decibel
Stability noise figure low noise amplifier for atmosphere radar,” in Microwave and
Isolation loss (dB) < -25 -53.49 Optical Technology Letter, vol. 58, no. 7, pp. 1618-1622, July 2016.
Power Consumption < 500 ≤ 300
[11] B. T . Venkatesh and I. Srinivasa Rao, "Design and analysis of low noise
(mW)
amplifier using active feedback for boundary layer radar,” 2014
Acknowledgements International Conference on Advances in Electronics Computers and
Communications, Bangalore, 2014, pp. 1-5.
The authors sincerely would like to thank Modelithics , Inc. as [12] B. T . Venkatesh Murthy and I. Srinivasa Rao, "Design of ultra low
Modelithics models utilized under the University License noise & high gain low noise amplifier using capacitive shunt feedback for
Program from Modelithics, Inc Tampa, FL.
UHF wind profiling radar application," 2014 2nd International

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