Microwave Amplifier Design

Amplifier Parameters Microwave Transistors Transistor Stability Single Stage Amplifier Maximum Gain and Specific Gain Methods
Prof. D. Kannadassan, School of Electronics Engineering

Microwave Amplifier - Gains

PAVS
PIN PAVN PL

Two port gains, by definitions

Transducer power gain
Power gain

Available power gain

Passive Unit: Dealt with the matching properties at input

Gain of Transistor

Passive Unit: Dealt with the matching properties at output

Types of Stability
Unconditionally stable:
in<1 and out<1 (for S<1 and L<1) They are always stable over the frequencies

Conditionally Stable:
in<1 and out<1 over for a range of Source and Load impedances. Also referred as Potentially Unstable.

Specified Gain Amplifier Design

In few applications, the systems are designed for gain less than the maximum possible This improves the Bandwidth and flat over the frequencies Or in other words:
Introducing the mismatches purposely to reduce from maximum gain Thats limiting the S and L with respect to Required gains GS and GL

In many practical cases lS12l is small enough to be ignored, and the device can then be assumed to be unilateral. Thus in=S11.

Eq.1

However, the maximum possible GS and GL values can be achieved only with conjugate matching:

Eq.2

To make the problem simple, the gains are normalized by maximum values

Eq. 3

Which line with in unity, Eq. 3 can be expanded to:

and

Eq. 3

Which can be made as circle equations as

called Input gain circle, similarly output gain circle also can be derived

Constant Gain Circles: Radius and center

From the gain circles

Note: Maximum value of the Normalized gains is 1, which will result - radius of 0. GS = GL=1(0dB), the circle will always passes through the center. S and L can be chosen within the circle, however we can limit the choice by selecting minimum mismatch and maximum bandwidth

Example: pozar 625

Since S12=0, unilateral case, and S11 and S22 are less than one, so device will be always Un-conditionally stable, so without testing. (If NOT, do the test)

For transistor

Expected gain is 11dB, thus 2.5dB is more than required.

To get 11dB, we can choose the GS and GL as

3+8+0=11dB or 2+8+1=11dB

Lets calculate the center and radius of gain circle for various GS and GL,

Measure the radius of Smith chart (R0) and draw the circles in it accordingly.

3+8+0=11dB

or

2+8+1=11dB

From the chart; GS=2dB and GL=1dB are chosen, since GL=0dB circle is passing through center so its complex to identify the minimum L to introduce mismatch.

S and L are being chosen by nearest point in the circle to get minimum mismatch and minimum length of series line.
Using the S and L values, design the matching network

Constant gain method: Pozar; pg:653

K=infinite (since S12=0) However <1.. Un-conditionally stable Gsmax=1.59 G0=2.242= 5.01(7dB) GLmax=2.08

Cont
Gs=1.26 (1dB), GL=1.58(2dB) gS=Gs/Gsmax
0.792

gL=GL/GLmax
0.760

Center and radius

CS=0.524170o..RS=0.310 CL=0.62583o.RL=0.269

Cont
Draw the gain circles in the smith chart From that the minimum mismatch
S= 0.215170o L=0.36183o

Design the matching circuit using the above. For input matching:
Series line length LS=0.121 Open-circuited stub length Lo=0.0.067

For Output matching:

Series line length LS=0.040 Open-circuited stub length Lo=0.394