Design of low-noise RF/microwave amplifiers for communication systems requiring very low power consumption

As miniaturization becomes a dominant factor in the development of microwave communication systems, power consumption emerges as an extremely critical design parameter for battery-operated wireless communication devices. With circuits requiring low power consumption, the resultant decrease in power supply battery size provides significant overall system volume and weight reduction. Low-noise amplifiers are essential in the design of many classes of communication receivers employed in microwave technology. For a broad class of wireless systems, there is a significant requirement for low-bias power, low-noise amplifiers operating in the 1 GHz frequency range. This paper presents the development of low-bias (V_CE=1 volt, I_C=1 mA), single-stage, low-noise amplifiers operating in the 1 GHz frequency range. These bipolar designs are unique in that they achieve excellent gain (>10 dB) and noise figure (~1 dB) while simultaneously requiring significantly lower bias power than standard designs