Gallium arsenide 0.5–18 GHz antenna front-end with integrated limiter and differential to single ended low-noise amplifier

In this work we present a 36:1 relative bandwidth active front-end LNA with power limiter that has been developed for airborne ultra-wideband receiver systems. The proposed system is driven by an external antenna with a balanced mode with an input impedance of 150 ohms. The whole MMIC embeds a protection from the presence of high-level signals, an ultra-wideband amplifier circuit, an active Balun, and an impedance transformer. It has a bandwidth ranging from 0.5 GHz to 18.0 GHz with 14 dB gain, 4.5 dB NF, 20 dB common-mode rejection, and 30 dBm input overload protection. The circuit has a single bias from the output port greatly simplifying its use within a receiving system and can be directly integrated in the antenna mechanical support. Test measurements are also provided.