Electronic Devices and Semiconductor Manufacturing Commons^™

Setting New Noise Performance Benchmarks Using Wideband Low-Noise High-Linearity Lnas, Chin-Leong Lim

Chin-Leong Lim

Objective: to design a 900 MHz Low-Noise Amplifier (LNA) using a MMIC fabricated on a new ultra low noise GaAs ePHEMT process. To demonstrate a new noise performance bench mark (F = 0.3 dB at IRL ≤ - 15 dB) for the plastic-packaged device class.

Material: The LNA consists of a Microwave Monolithic Integrated Circuit (MMIC) and 9 passive components mounted on a 21.5x18 mm2 Rogers RO4350 micro-strip PCB. The MMIC, which comprises a common-source amplifier and temperature-tracking active bias, is fabricated on a new GaAs ePHEMT process optimized for noise. As loss in the input matching network is proportional …

Tackle Wideband Rf Switching With Pin Diodes, Chin-Leong Lim

Chin-Leong Lim

PIN diodes make cheaper, faster and more reliable RF switches than the mechanical competition. The two methods of constructing PIN diodes, bulk and epitaxial, result in significantly different bias current, linearity and lower frequency limit. This paper compares the wideband series switching performances of a bulk PIN diode (w = 22.5 um, Tau = 300 ns) and an epitaxial diode (w = 6.5 um, Tau = 180 ns) in similar low-cost, miniature SOD-323 packages. Through simulation and experiment, we detected significant differences in insertion loss, isolation, and third-order intercept (IP3) performances between the two diode types. In conclusion, the design …

Diode Quad Is Foundation For Pin Diode Attenuator, Chin-Leong Lim

Chin-Leong Lim

Voltage-variable attenuators (VVAs) enable gain adjustment in a wide range of applications, including in cable-television (CATV), satellite-television (SATV) systems, and even test equipment and measurement systems. The PI VVA configuration using PIN diodes is ubiquitous in CATV and SATV systems owing to its low part count, small size, constant impedance, high linearity, and multi-decade bandwidth. Presently, there is a great pressure to miniaturize this VVA in order to shrink end-product size. To miniaturize this class of VVAs, we integrated four diodes into a five-pin, leadfree SOT-25 surface mount package. This paper describes the prototype VVA's design, fabrication and experimental results. …