MEMS varactor enabled frequency-reconfigurable LNA and PA in the upper UHF band

Author

Jajoo, Abhishek ; Wang, Leon ; Mukherjee, Tamal

Author_Institution

Dept. of ECE, Carnegie Mellon Univ., Pittsburgh, PA, USA

fYear

2009

fDate

7-12 June 2009

Firstpage

1121

Lastpage

1124

Abstract

A low-power frequency-reconfigurable narrowband LNA and PA have been designed using tunable RF-MEMS passives in a 0.35 mum BiCMOS process. The LNA´s operating frequency varies from 2.7 GHz to 3.1 GHz and the PA´s operating frequency varies from 2.7 GHz to 3.2 GHz (using the current 2.5:1 varactor tuning range; next generation varactors have 6.9:1 tuning range). With only 2.5 mW of power the LNA attains (S₂₁, NF) of (7.7 dB, 4.2 dB) at 2.7 GHz and (10.2 dB, 4.8 dB) at 3.1 GHz. The PA delivers 10.1-13.7 dBm of power and has a PAE of 7.5-17% depending on the frequency.

Keywords

integrated circuit design; low noise amplifiers; micromechanical devices; power amplifiers; varactors; BiCMOS process; MEMS varactor; drain efficiency; frequency 2.7 GHz to 3.1 GHz; frequency-reconfigurable LNA; low noise amplifiers; power 2.5 mW; power added efficiency; power amplifiers; size 0.35 mum; tunable RF-MEMS passives; Actuators; BiCMOS integrated circuits; Inductors; Low-noise amplifiers; Micromechanical devices; Narrowband; Noise figure; Radio frequency; Tuning; Varactors; RF MEMS; drain efficiency; low noise amplifiers; noise figure; power added efficiency; power amplifiers;

fLanguage

English

Publisher

ieee

Conference_Titel

Microwave Symposium Digest, 2009. MTT '09. IEEE MTT-S International

Conference_Location

Boston, MA

ISSN

0149-645X

Print_ISBN

978-1-4244-2803-8

Electronic_ISBN

0149-645X

Type

conf

DOI

10.1109/MWSYM.2009.5165898

Filename

5165898