300-1500 MHz Broadband LNA for the Canadian Hydrogen Observatory and Radio-transient Detector
Date
2022-09
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Abstract
A next generation radio telescope, CHORD is currently being designed and prototyped. This new radio telescope is designed to supersede the CHIME telescope in area, noise and bandwidth. The specifications for this telescope require a bandwidth between 300 MHz to 1500 MHz, along with the lowest possible noise figure at room temperature. To achieve this, a new LNA topology is proposed using a capacitively loaded source degenerated amplifier with a matching network. This topology allows the designer to control the optimum source impedance for low noise independently from the input impedance, such that the two can be conjugates of each other. A matching network is then proposed to approximate the optimum source impedance for broadband power and noise matching. The LNA was designed and measured, with S11 below -8 dB between 320 MHz to 1580 MHz, S21 of 32 dB +/- 1.2 dB, IP1dB greater than -37 dBm, and IIP3 greater than -20 dBm. Noise parameters were measured, with the LNA achieving sub-20 K noise temperatures between 500 MHz to 1400 MHz.
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Keywords
LNA, Microwave Circuits, Radio astronomy
Citation
Lai, C. (2022). 300-1500 MHz broadband LNA for the Canadian Hydrogen Observatory and Radio-transient Detector (Master's thesis, University of Calgary, Calgary, Canada). Retrieved from https://prism.ucalgary.ca.