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Radio Receiver Design

Hazelle P. Mamugay
Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineering
University of the Philippines Diliman
Quezon City, Philippines

Abstract
In this paper, a radio receiver is designed using a spreadsheet calculator for characteristics calculations. The built setup is
comprised of 5 stages: starting with a bandpass filter, a 2-stage low noise amplifier, a downconverter, and lastly, a low pass filter.
It achieved an overall gain of 63.8955 dB, a noise figure of 3.3112 dB, and a power output of -63.1045 dBm which satisy the
specifications set for this exercise.

I. I NTRODUCTION

D EALING with far and wide distances is a critical factor to consider for successful communication system. In RF
engineering, this is dealt with by applying concepts from microwave engineering, such as a sensitive receiver detecting a
signal sent out by a transmitter from a distance, operating at a range of high frequencies [1]. To get a closer view on how this
works, it is best to design a radio receiver to understand how the long distances and high frequencies affect communication
systems.
One application of microwave engineering is a radio receiver. This device is consisted of multiple non-linear devices cascaded
together as seen in its typical block diagram shown in figure 1. Although the signal traverses at least 4 stages of different
components, designing a receiver is mostly focused on its overall characteristics such as the total gain, noise figure, and output
power, thus each components are generally chosen based on these.

II. M ETHODOLOGY
A spreadsheet calculator called RFCafe-Calculator-Workbook was provided for this exercise. It contains multiple tabs to
work on that may be useful for several functions, but the tasks for this exercise are only focused on the ’Cascade’ and ’Path
Loss 1-Way’ tabs. The goal is to build a radio receiver system with the help of this calculator. It has to have a minimum
detectable signal of -127 dBm with an overall gain > 50dB, NF 6 5dB, and IM3 > 35dB. The sample receiver block shown
in Figure 1 was also provided.

Fig. 1: Typical receiver block diagram.

A. System Cascade Calculator

The initial step done to build the radio receiver is understanding the given block diagram. It usually consists of a bandpass
filter (BPF), low noise amplifier (LNA), a mixer, and a lowpass filter (LPF). Shown in Table 1 is a list of components that
can be used for the radio implementation. Their gain, noise figure, and OIP3 are already specified and are only needed to be
put in the spreadsheet calculator.

TABLE I: Component List

Component Label Gain (dB) NF (dB) OIP3 (dBm)
BPF (1530 to 1620 MHz) Mini-Circuits BFCN-1575+ -1.51 1.837 Default
Downconverter (50 MHz to 1000 MHz) Analog Devices AD8348 23.8 12.7 12.3
Downconverter (300 MHz to 1700 MHz) Texas Instruments TRF371109 24 17.5 30
LNA (0.7 GHz to 3 GHz) Mini-Circuits PMA4-33GLN 38.9 0.47 40.4
LNA (1500 to 1600 MHz) Macom MAALSS0044 21 1.55 19
LNA (400 MHz to 1.5 GHz) Avago MGA-13116 38 0.51 41.4
LPF (DC to 800 MHz) Mini-Circuits LFCN-800 -0.5779 0.9626 Default
LPF (DC to 900 MHz) Mini-Circuits ULP-900+ -0.5945 0.5945 Default
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From the block diagram, the setup is preceded by a BPF. Only one BPF component, Mini-Circuits BFCN-1575+, is on the
list so it is the model used for this exercise. Since it has a gain of -1.51 dB, at least a total gain of 51.51 dB is still needed
from the succeeding stages.
The next stages of the receiver are composed of the LNA, mixer, and a LPF. For the mixer, two downconverters can be
chosen to satisfy the specifications.

B. One way Path Loss Calculator

After successfully building a radio receiver, the next task given is determining the required power from the transmitter 30000
km, 40000 km, and 50000 km away from the receiver such that the latter can detect the signal. The path loss 1-way tab from
the spreadsheet is utilized to find the answers for this task.

III. R ESULTS AND D ISCUSSION

A. Radio Receiver Design
Shown in Figure 2 is a screenshot of the spreadsheet calculator with the values of the designed radio receiver. As mentioned
earlier, only one BPF option is available so it was automatically added. Using the BPF for the first stage gives -1.51 dB gain
and 1.837 noise figure. Because of this, more than 50 dB is still needed to satisfy the gain requirement.

Fig. 2: Radio receiver spreadsheet design.

The next component needed is an LNA. There are three options given, each operating at some specified range. For this
paper, since the input is expected to be from 1559 MHz – 1591 MHz, the chosen LNA model is the Macom MAALSS0044.
Amplifying signals from farther frequencies is unnecessary, so the operation range of the chosen LNA model, 1500 to 1600
MHz, is enough to work with.
The supposed next stage from the receiver block diagram is the mixer. For this exercise, a downconverter is used as the
mixer. However, the given options for this components only have a maximum of 24 dB gain. Adding together with the gain
from the earlier stages, the system would fail to meet the minimum 50 dB requirement from the specifications. Because of
this, another LNA is added, giving the system a 2-stage LNA design. The same model, Macom MAALSS0044, is used for
the second LNA. Doing so yields a total of 40.49 dB gain until this stage.
Since approximately only 10 dB left is needed to satisfy the gain requirement, the downconverter options seem enough
already to satisfy the specifications. Another task for this exercise is to downconvert the input signal from 860 MHz - 892
MHz frequency range. Either of the two choices can satisfy all of the requirements, but for this design, the Analog Devices
AD8348 model is chosen so that the calculated IM3 is closer to the minimum IM3 value.
Finally, the last stage of a radio receiver is an LPF. There are also two options for this component, and either of the two
can satisfy all of the requirements. However, a smaller noise figure is more desirable, thus the Mini-Circuits ULP-900+ model
is chosen for this exercise.
The overall design has a total gain of 63.8955 dB, 3.3112 dB noise figure, and 11.7018 dBm OIP3. From the spreadsheets,
IIP3 is equal to -63.1045 dBm which is also equal to the power output at OIP3. Solving for the IM3,

IM 3 = 2(OIP 3 − Pout )

IM 3 = 2(11.7018dBm − (−63.1045dBm))

∴ IM 3 = 149.6126dB.
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B. One way Path Loss

Another task for this exercise is to determine the minimum power transfer values from the transmitter given three different
distances. Since it was explicitly said that the Path Loss 1 – Way tab of the spreadsheets must be utilized to find the values,
this task was done by trial and error - input values until the minimum power, -127 dBm, received by the antenna is satisfied.
Shown in figures 3-5 are screenshots from the spreadsheets showing the power values needed from the transmitter for the
30000km, 40000km, and 50000km distances, respectively.

Fig. 3: Path loss one-way for 30000 km.

Fig. 4: Path loss one-way for 40000 km.

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Fig. 5: Path loss one-way for 50000 km.

C. Design Specification Checklist

To summarize the results gathered from the spreadsheets, shown in Table 2 are the values for the specifications needed for
this exercise.
TABLE II: Design Specifications Checklist
Specification Required Achieved by Design
Overall Gain > 50dB 63.8955 dB
NF 6 5dB 3.311222978 dB
IM3 > 35dB 156.220438 dB
Number of Stages 12 max 5
IIP3 -63.1045 dBm
PT (30000 km) 58.45 dBm
PT (40000 km) 61.3 dBm
PT (50000 km) 63.22 dBm

D. Required Discussions
1) Describe the general effect of cascading components to the overall gain and noise figure.

The overall gain is just an addition of all the gain of the components, while the total noise figure, although also additive,
takes into account the noise figure of the preceding component as well as the cumulative gain of the component.
Regardless, both characteristics generally increase as more components are cascaded into the system.

2) In some simulators like MATLAB, you can assume OIP3 to be infinity. How does the workbook limitation affect the
calculations, if there are any.

On the spreadsheets from figure 2, only the OIP3 values deal with infinity. The formula for total OIP3 uses reciprocal
values. The default value for infinity on the spreadsheets is only 999, and getting its reciprocal yields 1x10−3 , significantly
bigger than a flat zero that MATLAB can solve. The OIP3 values from figure 2 are quite small, and because of this, the
decimal places in the calculations may become significant at some point.

3) We have not touched upon component cost in our design. Comment on how it affects design decisions in general.

Generally, if the price difference between components is not that big, it is best to choose the one that can attain the
desired specs the closest. However, if the price difference is significant, people tend to choose the cheaper options. The
downside of choosing cheaper options is the possibility of needing to cascade multiple components which might give
trouble with getting the desired overall gain.
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IV. C ONCLUSION
A radio receiver is a cascade of non-linear components designed to detect signals even from thousands of kilometers away
from the source. It can be simply designed by choosing components that compose its typical block diagram based on their
gain, noise figure, and OIP3, until the specifications is met. However, the cost of each components might be a limitation when
choosing the components which may require more planning to be done.
Another limitation that may arise when building a receiver is that the input power must be greater than or equal to a minimum
specified value. This input power requires a varied output power from the transmitter depending on the distance between the
two.

R EFERENCES
[1] D. Pozar, Microwave Engineering, 2nd ed. Hoboken, NJ: Wiley, 1998.