A Wideband Single-Channel Receiver Front-End For C/X/KU/KA-BAND Satcom Systems

This thesis focuses on the design and implementation of a radio frequency (RF) integratedreceiver for satellite communication (SATCOM). Increasing the bandwidth isone of the key enablers to achieve higher data rates. In mm-wave, a larger bandwidthcan be allocated. Since Low-Earth orbit (LEO) SATCOM systems are promising forglobal connectivity and internet coverage, these SATCOM applications have gatheredattention recently. Currently licensed frequency bands for SATCOM receptionare C-, X-, Ku-, and Ka-bands. A wideband receiver RF module that covers theseSATCOM bands would be cost-efficient. On the other hand, due to orbiting aroundEarth at more than 200 km altitudes and utilizing mm-wave, the atmospheric pathloss is increased. To compensate for increased path loss, one can employ MIMOarrays.This thesis presents two separate single-channel receiver-ICs for SATCOM applications.The first receiver includes a low-noise amplifier (LNA) and a phase shifter.The designed receiver achieved a 6-bit phase resolution over a bandwidth of 5.7-25 GHz. The first receiver exhibits a peak output referred the third-order interceptpoint (OIP3) and input referred 1-dB compression point (IP1dB) of -22 dBmand -23.4 dBm, respectively, thanks to the post-distortion technique employed inthe LNA. The second receiver is based on sub-blocks: an LNA, a phase shifterattenuator,and a variable gain amplifier (VGA). The same post-distortion methodis applied in the LNA. A passive vector sum phase shifter topology is adopted toenhance linearity performance. The phase shifter architecture is based on a novelclose-loop voltage variable attenuator (VVA). The proposed VVA enables to achieve both phase and amplitude control functionality in a single block with low RMS phaseand amplitude error. Also, a quadrature hybrid coupler is utilized with a 1st-orderpolyphase filter (PPF) to obtain 6-bit phase resolution over a wide bandwidth. TheVGA is based on a distributed amplifier topology with an RC-feedback to obtainwideband low amplitude error. The second receiver achieves a gain of 25 dB, aminimum noise figure (NF) of 2.7 dB, and -23 dBm IP1dB over a wide frequencyrange of 7-26.4 GHz, which covers multiple licensed frequency bands for SATCOMreception. The second receiver provides 6-bit phase resolution with 5.6◦ RMS phaseerror and 36-dB attenuation range.To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this receiverachieved the highest attenuation range and highest linearity that supports themultiple licensed frequency bands for SATCOM reception thanks to passive vectorsum with the proposed VVA and the post-distortion method applied in the LNA.