Low-Noise Amplifier for Statistical Multiband and Multistandard Applications

The Low-Noise Amplifier (LNA) Student Design Competition has continuously evolved since its inception. Each year, students have been challenged to design an LNA with an increased emphasis on ruggedness, linearity, and broadband performance [1]-[5]. The 2014 IEEE Microwave Theory and Techniques Society (MTT-S) International Microwave Symposium (IMS2014) continued this trend by requiring students to design an LNA receiver module for statistical multiband and multistandard applications in an effort to raise awareness about the complexity and nondeterministic nature of the topic. For the first time in competition history, the measurement frequencies were not predetermined and were decided on the day of the competition by two rolls of a six-sided die, with each side representing a frequency in gigahertz. This requirement prevented students from optimizing a design for a particular set of frequencies and instead called for a design possessing linear broadband performance from 1 to 6 GHz.