Design of a reconfigurable low-noise amplifier in a silicon-germanium process for radar applications

• Main Author: Schmid, Robert L.
• Published: Georgia Institute of Technology 2013
• Subjects: Phased-array radar; Adaptive; Reconfigurable; Silicon-germanium; Low-noise amplifier; Stability; K-factor; S-probe; Amplifiers (Electronics); Power amplifiers; Silicon alloys; Germanium alloys; Low noise amplifiers
• Online Access: http://hdl.handle.net/1853/47642

This thesis describes a unique approach of turning on and off transistor cores to reconfigure low-noise amplifiers. A small footprint single-pole, single-throw switch is optimized for low insertion loss and high isolation. A narrowband (non-switchable) LNA is developed as a basis of comparison for reconfigurable designs. The optimized switch is incorporated into different switchable transistor core architectures. These architectures are investigated to determine their ability to reconfigure amplifier performance. One switchable transistor core topology is integrated into a cascode LNA design. An in depth stability analysis employing the S-probe technique is used to help improve the reliability of the cascode design. In addition, a single-pole, double-throw transmit/receive switch, as well as a deserializer are developed to help support the LNA block in a reconfigurable phased-array radar system. This type of flexible radar design is very beneficial in challenging electromagnetic environments.