Publication: S-parameters, noise and linearity on-chip measurement of a single-ended low noise amplifier
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Date
2008-05-01
Authors
Tse, Tuck Wah
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Abstract
It is a known fact that low noise amplifiers play a huge part in today’s communication system by providing amplification of the signal received at the system’s antenna. They are important in the receiver design where their main function is to amplify extremely low signals without adding noise. This will maintain the required signal to noise ratio of the system at extremely low power levels. It is important for an engineer to understand the parameters of a low noise amplifier before being able to modify the amplifier to suit a particular application. This project involves die measurement of the performance metrics of a single-ended low noise amplifier. These performance metrics include S-Parameters, noise, linearity and also DC performance. The measurements were conducted in the CEDEC laboratory. The equipments used for measurement include the network analyzer, parameter analyzer and spectrum analyzers together with the corresponding proposed test setups. The measurement results are compared with the simulation results and an analysis is done based on the outcome. The results show that not all of the measurement results agree with the expected simulation results. Some of the dies are not matched properly as some of the matching circuits are not designed on-chip and this implies that a PCB needs to be prepared for this die before it can be measured. It is proven that the overall noise figure of a die can be reduced by adding an extra capacitor at the input of the die. The linearity test is done for the first time. So, only 2 dies are measured for their linearity data. The measurement shows positive results for one of the die and this proves that the linearity test setup that was proposed in this project is correct, since the main contribution in this project is the linearity test.