A novel wide-range continuously-tuneable varactor-based matching network for low-noise amplifiers

Abstract

With the increasing demand of wideband or multi-standard wireless communications, low-noise amplifiers (LNAs) with wideband characteristics have become a crucial building block of typical receivers. In the design of LNAs, the major parameters such as gain, return loss and noise figure (NF) heavily rely on the input and output matching. In this paper, a novel tuneable matching network is proposed and a wide-range tuneable LNA operating within the range from 1.5 GHz to 2.3 GHz is constructed with this novel matching network. The capacity of this proposed matching structure to be continuously-tuneable is accomplished by utilising varactors of which the capacitance can be optionally controlled. Furthermore, the design theory of the proposed tuneable matching network is derived. A microstrip prototype of the LNA is simulated, fabricated and measured for verification. The LNA prototype maintains gain and return loss over 10 dB in the frequency range from 1.5 GHz to 2.3 GHz. Additionally, all operating-frequency NFs of the prototype are below 3 dB. The measured results show that the performance of the fabricated prototype is consistent with the simulation, which demonstrates the effectiveness of this proposed new design.

Keywords:

• continuously-tuneable
• wide-range tuneable
• varactor-based
• flexible-controlled matching network
• low-noise amplifier

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Yangyang Guan

Miss Yangyang Guan received her B.Sc. degree in Electronic Engineering from the Chongqing University of Posts and Telecommunications (CQUPT), Chongqing, People's Republic of China in 2014 and is currently working toward the M.Sc. degree in Electronic Engineering from the Beijing University of Posts and Telecommunications (BUPT), People's Republic of China.

Yongle Wu

Prof Yongle Wu received his BEng degree in Communication Engineering and Ph.D. degree in Electronic Engineering from the BUPT, People's Republic of China in 2006 and 2011, respectively. During April to October 2010, he was a Research Assistant of the City University of Hong Kong (CityU). In 2011, he joined the BUPT and is currently an Associate Professor of the School of Electronic Engineering. His research interests include microwave components and wireless system design.

Xiaoliang Zhang

Mr Xiaoliang Zhang received his B.Sc. degree from the Jilin University, Changchun, People's Republic of China in 2013 and is currently working to obtain his M.Sc. degree from the BUPT, People's Republic of China. His main research interest lies in the field of active microwave components.

Yuanan Liu

Prof Yuanan Liu received his BEng, MEng and Ph.D. degrees in Electrical Engineering from the University of Electronic Science and Technology of China, Chengdu, People's Republic of China, in 1984, 1989 and 1992, respectively.

In 1984, he joined the 26th Institute of the Electronic Ministry of China to develop the inertia navigating system. In 1992, he began his first post-doctoral position in the Electromagnetic Compatibility (EMC) Laboratory of the BUPT, People's Republic of China. In 1995, he started his second post-doctoral position in the broadband mobile laboratory of the Department of System and Computer Engineering, Carleton University, Canada. Since July 1997, he has been a Professor at the Wireless Communication Centre of the College of Telecommunication Engineering, the BUPT, where he is involved in the development of next-generation cellular systems, wireless LAN, Bluetooth applications for data transmission, EMC design strategies for high-speed digital systems, and electromagnetic interference (EMI) and electromagnetic susceptibility (EMS) measuring sites with low cost and high performance.