Design Of 11 GHz Ku-Band Amplifier

Amplification is one of the most basic and prevalent RF/Microwave circuit functions. This paper describes the design of an 11 GHz PHEMT ATF-36077 microwave amplifier. The amplifier is manually designed using conventional technique, Smith chart was used to do a matching of the input and output of the amplifier. A completed design of the amplifier was optimised using Hewlett-Packard Advanced Design System (HP-ADS) software. The layout generated by the software was used to fabricate the amplifier. Performance analysis of the amplifier has been carried out and comparison between simulated and measured results has been done. Microwave amplifier normally integrated in the Low Noise Block (LNB) and connected to the indoor equipment using coaxial cable. The DC power supply is fed to the down-converter block using the same cable and typically 12 Volt. Microwave amplifier normally needed the negative power supply for biasing the Gate of the PHEMT. This paper will also describe the simplest and the cheapest design of the DC to DC converter using well known 555 timer IC. This converter was used to generate negative power supply to bias the PHEMT.