Design of Ku/Ka band down-converter front-end for digital broadcast satellite receivers

Different configurations and design techniques to achieve high performance Ku/Ka band down-converter front-end for digital broadcast satellite (DBS) receivers are presented. The individual blocks of low-noise amplifier (LNA), mixer, balun, and IF amplifier suitable for DBS applications are reviewed and discussed in details. Also, our recent progress in the fully-integrated low-noise blocks (LNBs) using low cost 0.18-µm SiGe BiCMOS technology for DBS down-converter is reported, including a Ku-band design with a low NF (< 5.8 dB) and a high conversion gain up to 47.7 dB, and also a Ka-band design achieving a NF < 6.6 dB with a conversion gain up to 49.4 dB. The output P1dB of the two designs are 5.8 dBm and 4.2 dBm, respectively.