Design of a Ka Band Low Noise Amplifier for satellite communication

In space communication multiple satellites deal together in order to be a part of a large constellation and most of them are in the Low Earth Orbit (LEO) which is, from 160km to 1000km distance from Earth' surface; this cooperation let them to cover large areas simultaneously and nowadays they are widely used thanks to their accessibility, high data rate, reliability but, important requirements are posed both for the receiver (RX) chain and for the transmitter (TX). The signal coming from the outer space is weak due to free space attenuation and, consequently, must be amplified while keeping the noise under a certain level. To overcome this issue, the first block in a RX stage plays a key role and it's called Low Noise Amplifier (LNA); LNAs has become crucial thanks to their low noise and relatively high gain, in fact, it's used for many telecommunication applications such as 5G wireless, WiFi, GPS, Bluetooth, automotive radar and, as mentioned in the next chapters, in satellite links. This Master Thesis aims to present in a detailed way a LNA in BiCMOS technology operating in Ka-band (downlink: 17.7 - 20.2 GHz) for LEO satellite communication. To do so, this work starts from theoretical aspects such as noise analysis, S-parameters and stability criteria, which are fundamental mathematical tools. Circuit design follows, and it’s supported by several Cadence' simulations also considering electromagnetic effects to meet stringent targets like input and output matching, noise matching, linearity, gain and power consumption. Adding this, a layout implementation is proposed and it's showing how parasitic are affecting and degrading all the main parameters. Complete design is presented, and final results are in line with specifications.