Abstract
In recent years, the ISM bands have become crowded due to the increasing popularity of various wireless communication applications. One possible solution is to move from the low GHz range towards higher operating frequencies such as microwave and millimeter-wave bands to have wider bandwidths and higher data rate. This thesis focuses on the design of high-gain, low-noise RF receiver front-end for satellite communication systems. The target operating band is from 10.7GHz to 13.45GHz (Ku-band). This thesis proposes two RF receiver front-ends fabricated in 0.18μm SiGe and a frequency synthesizer fabricated in 90nm CMOS. The mixer of receiver front-end uses the current bleeding structure to improve linearity and the IF amplifier uses multiple feedback and 3D inductor to increase bandwidth and linearity. The main of the two receiver front-ends different is the low-noise amplifier. One design uses the transformer feedback technique to accomplish impedance matching and low noise. The other uses the common-gate structure and CCC technique for improved wideband-matching. The gains of both receiver front-ends are above 45 dB, which meet the design target. The synthesizer focuses on low-phase noise. The reference frequency is 50 MHz. The loop bandwidth is 500 kHz and the phase margin is 66°. The divider uses dynamic E-TSPC circuit to reduce delay for operating higher frequency. The divide ratio is from 128 to 255. The VCO in synthesizer uses Class-F type to increase zero-crossings slope for reducing phase noise. The phase noise of synthesizer at 1 MHz offset is -121 dBc/Hz. It is improved apparently.