B GA 231L 7
LN A f or G lobal Pos i tionin g S y s te ms
Applic atio n N ote A N 250
Revision: Rev. 1.2
2012-02-20
RF and P r otecti on D evic es
Edition 2012-02-20
Published by
Infineon Technologies AG
81726 Munich, Germany
© 2012 Infineon Technologies AG
All Rights Reserved.
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BGA231L7
LNA for Global Positioning Systems
Application Note AN250
Revision History: 2012-02-20
Previous Revision: Rev. 1.1, 2011-02-11
Page
Subjects (major changes since last revision)
Page 7
Measurements added for supply voltage of 1.8 V
Trademarks of Infineon Technologies AG
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Other Trademarks
AMBA™, ARM™, MULTI-ICE™, PRIMECELL™, REALVIEW™, THUMB™ of ARM Limited, UK. AUTOSAR™
is licensed by AUTOSAR development partnership. Bluetooth™ of Bluetooth SIG Inc. CAT-iq™ of DECT
Forum. COLOSSUS™, FirstGPS™ of Trimble Navigation Ltd. EMV™ of EMVCo, LLC (Visa Holdings Inc.).
EPCOS™ of Epcos AG. FLEXGO™ of Microsoft Corporation. FlexRay™ is licensed by FlexRay Consortium.
HYPERTERMINAL™ of Hilgraeve Incorporated. IEC™ of Commission Electrotechnique Internationale. IrDA™
of Infrared Data Association Corporation. ISO™ of INTERNATIONAL ORGANIZATION FOR
STANDARDIZATION. MATLAB™ of MathWorks, Inc. MAXIM™ of Maxim Integrated Products, Inc.
MICROTEC™, NUCLEUS™ of Mentor Graphics Corporation. Mifare™ of NXP. MIPI™ of MIPI Alliance, Inc.
MIPS™ of MIPS Technologies, Inc., USA. muRata™ of MURATA MANUFACTURING CO. OmniVision™ of
OmniVision Technologies, Inc. Openwave™ Openwave Systems Inc. RED HAT™ Red Hat, Inc. RFMD™ RF
Micro Devices, Inc. SIRIUS™ of Sirius Sattelite Radio Inc. SOLARIS™ of Sun Microsystems, Inc. SPANSION™
of Spansion LLC Ltd. Symbian™ of Symbian Software Limited. TAIYO YUDEN™ of Taiyo Yuden Co.
TEAKLITE™ of CEVA, Inc. TEKTRONIX™ of Tektronix Inc. TOKO™ of TOKO KABUSHIKI KAISHA TA.
UNIX™ of X/Open Company Limited. VERILOG™, PALLADIUM™ of Cadence Design Systems, Inc. VLYNQ™
of Texas Instruments Incorporated. VXWORKS™, WIND RIVER™ of WIND RIVER SYSTEMS, INC. ZETEX™
of Diodes Zetex Limited.
Last Trademarks Update 2009-10-19
Application Note AN250, Rev. 1.2
3 / 15
2012-02-20
BGA231L7
LNA for Global Positioning Systems
List of Content, Figures and Tables
Table of Content
1
Introduction ........................................................................................................................................ 5
2
Application Circuit ............................................................................................................................. 6
3
Typical Measurement Results ........................................................................................................... 7
4
Measured Graphs ............................................................................................................................... 9
5
Evaluation Board .............................................................................................................................. 13
6
Author ................................................................................................................................................ 14
List of Figures
Figure 1
Figure 2
Figure 3
Figure 4
Figure 5
Figure 6
Figure 7
Figure 8
Figure 9
Figure 10
Figure 11
Figure 12
Figure 13
Block diagram....................................................................................................................................... 5
Device level noise circles (blue) and gain circles (red) at 1575 MHz .................................................. 5
BGA231L7 application circuit ............................................................................................................... 6
Gain ...................................................................................................................................................... 9
Wideband Gain..................................................................................................................................... 9
Matching ............................................................................................................................................. 10
Isolation .............................................................................................................................................. 10
Input 1 dB compression point ............................................................................................................. 11
IP3 measurement ............................................................................................................................... 11
Stability factor ..................................................................................................................................... 12
Unpopulated board. Size: 20 mm x 20 mm........................................................................................ 13
Assembled board ............................................................................................................................... 13
PCB layer stack .................................................................................................................................. 13
List of Tables
Table 1
Table 2
Table 3
Bill-of-Materials..................................................................................................................................... 6
Electrical Characteristics (at room temperature) .................................................................................. 7
Electrical Characteristics (at room temperature) .................................................................................. 8
Application Note AN250, Rev. 1.2
4 / 15
2012-02-20
BGA231L7
LNA for Global Positioning Systems
Introduction
1
Introduction
The BGA231L7 is a low cost and easy-to-use SiGe LNA (Low Noise Amplifier). It features high gain, ultra low
noise figure, high linearity and an outstanding ESD performance of 2 kV HBM at all pins.
BGA231L7’s integrated biasing circuit makes powering of the device an easy task, offering a constant bias point
over a wide range of supply voltages and temperatures. The LNA can be switched on and off using a standard
digital logic level as the control current into PON pin is only 5 µA in on-state and even lower at off-state.
BGA231L7’s output is already matched to 50 Ohm and its input is pre-matched requiring only one coil for
impedance matching. The bypass capacitor at VCC (Pin-6) can be chosen above 1nF in order to provide a
proper ground for low frequency signals.
This application note demonstrates the performance of the device on a low cost 0.2 mm FR4 material using
standard 0201 size SMT components
VCC PON
BIAS
BIAS
AI
AO
ESD
GND
Figure 1
BGA231L7_Blockdiagram.vsd
Block diagram
Figure 2 shows the location of BGA231L7’s gain circles and noise circles at device level. This means that losses
of external passives and losses of a PCB are not included.
Swp Max
1.575GHz
p1 p2
2.
0
NFCIR(3,0.1)
6
0.
0.8
1.0
Noise and Gain Circles
GACIR(16.5,0.5,2)
0.
4
0
3.
0
4.
p3
5.0
p4 p5
p6
0.2
10.0
5.0
4.0
3.0
2.0
1.0
0.8
0.6
0.4
0
0.2
10.0
-10.0
2
-0.
4
.0
-5.
0
p1: Freq = 1.575 GHz p2: Freq = 1.575 GHz
G = 16.5 dB
G = 16 dB
-3
.0
Figure 2
-1.0
-0.8
p5: Freq = 1.575 GHz p6: Freq = 1.575 GHz
NF = 0.74 dB
NF = 0.84 dB
.0
-2
-0
.6
.4
p3: Freq = 01.575
GHz p4: Freq = 1.575 GHz
NF = 0.54 dB
NF = 0.64 dB
Swp Min
1.575GHz
Device level noise circles (blue) and gain circles (red) at 1575 MHz
Application Note AN250, Rev. 1.2
5 / 15
2012-02-20
BGA231L7
LNA for Global Positioning Systems
Application Circuit
2
Application Circuit
2.1
Schematic Diagram
N1
PON
C2
(optional)
BGA231L7
VCC
VCC, 6
PON, 1
C1
(optional)
L2
RFin
RFout
AO, 5
AI, 2
L1
DEG, 4
BIAS, 3
n.c.
GND, 7
BGA231L7_Schematic.vsd
Figure 3
Table 1
BGA231L7 application circuit
Bill-of-Materials
Symbol
Value
Unit
Package
Manufacturer
Comment
C1
100
nF
0201
Various
RF bypass for low frequencies
C2
33
pF
0201
Various
L1
39
nH
0201
L2
6.8
nH
0201
Murata
LQP03T
Murata
LQP03T
DC block, optional, self resonance frequency @
1.575 GHz
Bias feed, RF choke, self resonance frequency
@ 1.575 GHz
Input matching / noise matching
Q1
BGA231L7
Application Note AN250, Rev. 1.2
TSLP-7-1
Infineon
6 / 15
SiGe LNA
2012-02-20
BGA231L7
LNA for Global Positioning Systems
Typical Measurement Results
3
Typical Measurement Results
Table 2 and Table 3 show typical measurement results of the application circuit shown in Figure 3. The values
given in this table include losses of the board and the SMA connectors if not otherwise stated.
Table 2
Electrical Characteristics (at room temperature)
Vcc = Vpon = 1.8 V
Parameter
Symbol
Value
Unit
DC Voltage
Vcc
1.8
V
DC Current
Icc
4.3
mA
Frequency Range
Freq
1575
1609
MHz
Gain
G
15.8
15.7
dB
Noise Figure
NF
0.85
0.83
dB
Incl. board and connector losses
0.70
0.68
dB
Losses de-embedded
Input Return Loss
RLin
8.8
9.0
dB
Output Return Loss
RLout
17.2
19.9
dB
Reverse Isolation
IRev
22.7
22.5
dB
Input P1dB
IP1dB
-7.5
-7.3
dBm
Input IP3
IIP3
-1.3
-0.8
dBm
Out-of-Band IIP2
OoB_IP2
2.5
dBm
Out-of-Band IIP3
OoB_IP3
5.0
dBm
Stability
k
> 1.2
--
Application Note AN250, Rev. 1.2
7 / 15
Comment/Test Condition
f1 = 1575 MHz, f2 = 1576 MHz,
-30 dBm per tone
f1 = 2400 MHz, -50 dBm
f2 = 824.6 MHz, -20 dBm
f1 = 1850 MHz, -50 dBm
f2 = 1712.7 MHz, -20 dBm
2012-02-20
BGA231L7
LNA for Global Positioning Systems
Table 3
Electrical Characteristics (at room temperature)
Vcc = Vpon = 2.85 V
Parameter
Symbol
Value
Unit
Comment/Test Condition
DC Voltage
Vcc
2.85
V
DC Current
Icc
4.4
mA
Frequency Range
Freq
1575
1609
MHz
Gain
G
15.9
15.8
dB
Noise Figure
NF
0.85
0.84
dB
Incl. board and connector losses
0.70
0.69
dB
Losses de-embedded
Input Return Loss
RLin
9.3
9.5
dB
Output Return Loss
RLout
16.6
20.3
dB
Reverse Isolation
IRev
23.1
22.9
dB
Input P1dB
IP1dB
-4.7
-4.5
dBm
Input IP3
IIP3
-1
-0.5
dBm
f1 = 1575 MHz, f2 = 1576 MHz,
-30 dBm per tone
Out-of-Band IIP2
OoB_IP2
2
dBm
f1 = 2400 MHz, -50 dBm
f2 = 824.6 MHz, -20 dBm
Out-of-Band IIP3
OoB_IP3
4.5
dBm
f1 = 1850 MHz, -50 dBm
f2 = 1712.7 MHz, -20 dBm
Stability
k
> 1.2
--
Application Note AN250, Rev. 1.2
8 / 15
2012-02-20
BGA231L7
LNA for Global Positioning Systems
Measured Graphs
4
Measured Graphs
Gain
17
DB(|S(2,1)|)
16.5
S21 (dB)
16
15.5
15
14.5
1.5
Figure 4
1.525
1.55
1.575
1.6
Frequency (GHz)
1.625
1.65
Gain
Gain
20
DB(|S(2,1)|)
10
S21 (dB)
0
-10
-20
-30
-40
-50
-60
0
Figure 5
1
2
3
4
5
6
Frequency (GHz)
7
8
9
10
Wideband Gain
Application Note AN250, Rev. 1.2
9 / 15
2012-02-20
BGA231L7
LNA for Global Positioning Systems
Measured Graphs
Matching
0
DB(|S(1,1)|)
DB(|S(2,2)|)
S11, S22 (dB)
-5
-10
-15
-20
-25
1.5
Figure 6
1.525
1.55
1.575
1.6
Frequency (GHz)
1.625
1.65
Matching
Isolation
-20
DB(|S(1,2)|)
S12 (dB)
-21
-22
-23
-24
-25
1.5
Figure 7
1.525
1.55
1.575
1.6
Frequency (GHz)
1.625
1.65
Isolation
Application Note AN250, Rev. 1.2
10 / 15
2012-02-20
BGA231L7
LNA for Global Positioning Systems
Measured Graphs
Figure 8
Input 1 dB compression point
Figure 9
IP3 measurement
Application Note AN250, Rev. 1.2
11 / 15
2012-02-20
BGA231L7
LNA for Global Positioning Systems
Measured Graphs
Stability Factor
10
9
Stabilty Factor K
8
7
6
5
4
3
2
K()
1
0
0
Figure 10
2.5
5
7.5
10
12.5
Frequency (GHz)
15
17.5
20
Stability factor
Application Note AN250, Rev. 1.2
12 / 15
2012-02-20
BGA231L7
LNA for Global Positioning Systems
Evaluation Board
5
Evaluation Board
Figure 11
Unpopulated board. Size: 20 mm x 20 mm.
Figure 12
Assembled board
Note: There are three 0 jumpers at positions L1, L2 and R2 in Figure 12. These are not required for a new
design with BGA231L7 but make it possible to place a pin-compatible competitor’s part on the same PCB.
This competitor’s device requires additional coils, resistors and capacitors.
Figure 13
0.035 mm
Copper
0.200 mm
FR4
0.035 mm
Copper
0.760 mm
FR4
0.035 mm
Copper
PCB layer stack
Application Note AN250, Rev. 1.2
13 / 15
2012-02-20
BGA231L7
LNA for Global Positioning Systems
Author
6
Author
Dietmar Stolz, Staff Engineer of Business Unit “RF and Protection Devices”
Application Note AN250, Rev. 1.2
14 / 15
2012-02-20
w w w . i n f i n e o n . c o m
Published by Infineon Technologies AG
AN250