Current Status of Receiver Low-Noise Technology

Significant advances have been made in the capability of both microwave and millimeter wave receivers over the past few years. An integral part of this ever-changing technology, which is being developed to meet the challenge of expanding system requirements, is the rapid advancement of low-noise receivers. The state-of-the-art of Receiver Low-Noise Technology for both the microwave and millimeter wave regions will be presented. The techniques of optimum coupling of semiconductor devices with low-noise embedding circuits for various receiver components (for example, paramps, FET's, mixers , etc.) will be explored. The choice of transmission lines, particularly in the millimeter wave region, will be presented. Performance criteria in evaluating low-noise systems for various receiver configurations, as well as future trends in millimeter receivers, will also be given.