Wideband cryogenic LNA design for the ngVLA Band-1 receiver

Nianhua Jiang; Lewis B. G. Knee; Dominic Garcia; Pat Niranjanan; Ivan Wevers

doi:10.1117/12.2629137

31 August 2022 Wideband cryogenic LNA design for the ngVLA Band-1 receiver

Nianhua Jiang, Lewis B. G. Knee, Dominic Garcia, Pat Niranjanan, Ivan Wevers

Proceedings Volume 12190, Millimeter, Submillimeter, and Far-Infrared Detectors and Instrumentation for Astronomy XI; 1219021 (2022) https://doi.org/10.1117/12.2629137
Event: SPIE Astronomical Telescopes + Instrumentation, 2022, Montréal, Québec, Canada

Abstract

The next-generation Very Large Array (ngVLA) front end incorporates six dual-polarization receivers covering the frequency range from 1.2 to 116 GHz. The ngVLA Band-1 receiver covers a frequency range of 1.2 to 3.5 GHz. This wideband requirement presents a challenge for the extremely low noise design for the required cryogenic low noise amplifier (LNA). GaAs HEMT technology is very reliable at a gate length of 150 nm and that gate feature size is suitable for low noise amplifiers up to the microwave frequency range. Below 3 GHz, the transistor gate has a very large capacitive impedance, exhibiting like an open circuit, which requires large values of inductors for 50 Ω impedance and low noise matching. The hybrid circuit configuration allows the design to select high-Q discrete inductors and capacitors with large values to minimize loss/noise from passive components. A two-stage single-ended GaAs HEMT LNA was designed based on the hybrid configuration. A prototype ngVLA Band-1 LNA was assembled and fully tested at a physical temperature 12 K. This newly designed GaAs HEMT LNA achieved 1.6 K average noise temperature and 34 dB average high gain between 1.2 and 3.5 GHz, the total power consumption is about 10 mW, which can meet the current requirements of the ngVLA Band-1 receiver.

Citation Download Citation

Nianhua Jiang, Lewis B. G. Knee, Dominic Garcia, Pat Niranjanan, and Ivan Wevers "Wideband cryogenic LNA design for the ngVLA Band-1 receiver", Proc. SPIE 12190, Millimeter, Submillimeter, and Far-Infrared Detectors and Instrumentation for Astronomy XI, 1219021 (31 August 2022); https://doi.org/10.1117/12.2629137

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KEYWORDS

Transistors

Receivers

Field effect transistors

Cryogenics

Gallium arsenide

Amplifiers

Capacitors

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