AMPLIFIER DESIGN

USING THE
FET ( MMRF1014NT1)

Submitted by:
Niharika K. Samant
MSc in Electronics Engineering
Student ID: 32153009
ENGR507

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 INDEX

ABSTRACT
1) INTRODUCTION
1. AMPLIFIER ----------------------------------------------------------- (3)
2. FILTER ----------------------------------------------------------------- (3)
3. FIELD EFFECT TRANSISTOR ------------------------------------ (4)
4. BIASING CIRCUIT --------------------------------------------------- (5)
5. MATCHING CIRCUIT ----------------------------------------------- (5)
6. S PARAMETERS ------------------------------------------------------ (6)
7. STABILITY CIRCLES ------------------------------------------------ (7)
2) METHODOLOGY
i). DETERMINING S PARAMETERS --------------------------------- (8)
ii). OBTAINING INPUT AND OUTPUT MATCH USING
SMITH CHART -------------------------------------------------------- (9)
iii). MODELLING THE COMPONENTS IN MWO ------------------- (10)
iv). TRANSMISSION OF THE FLITERS FROM THE FULL
AMPLIFIER CIRCUIT ------------------------------------------------ (12)
3) RESULTS -------------------------------------------------------------------- (15)
REFERENCES
ANNEXURE

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ABSTRACT
This report describes the principle, design and the operation of an amplifier (A class) at a centre
frequency of 0.8 GHz using the FET MMRF1014NT1 and impedance matched bandpass filters on both
the RF output and input having bandwidth of 60MHz; and a low pass filter on the DC lines. Smith
charts are used to show the input and the output matching. Gain calculation and the stability circles are
used to verify the results.

1) INTRODUCTION
1. Amplifier
“An amplifier is an electronic device that can increase the power of a signal (a time varying voltage
or current) . An amplifier uses electric power from a power supply to increase the amplitude of a signal.
The amount of amplification provided by an amplifier is measured by its gain: the ratio of output
voltage, current, or power to input. An amplifier is a circuit that has a power gain greater than one.

In principle, an amplifier is an electrical two-port network that produces a signal at the output port that
is a replica of the signal applied to the input port, but increased in magnitude. Amplifiers designed to
attach to a transmission line at input and output, especially RF amplifiers, do not fit into this
classification approach. Rather than dealing with voltage or current individually, they ideally couple
with an input or output impedance matched to the transmission line impedance, that is, match ratios of
voltage to current. Many real RF amplifiers come close to this ideal. Although, for a given appropriate
source and load impedance, RF amplifiers can be characterized as amplifying voltage or current, they
fundamentally are amplifying power.

Amplifier properties are given by parameters that include:

 Gain, the ratio between the magnitude of output and input signals
 Bandwidth, the width of the useful frequency range
 Efficiency, the ratio between the power of the output and total power consumption
 Linearity, the extent to which the proportion between input and output amplitude is the same
for high amplitude and low amplitude input
 Noise, a measure of undesired noise mixed into the output
 Stability, the ability to avoid self-oscillation

Amplifiers are described according to the properties of their inputs, their outputs, and how they relate.
All amplifiers have gain, a multiplication factor that relates the magnitude of some property of the
output signal to a property of the input signal. The gain may be specified as the ratio of output voltage to
input voltage (voltage gain), output power to input power (power gain), or some combination of current,
voltage, and power. In many cases the property of the output that varies is dependent on the same
property of the input, making the gain unitless (though often expressed in decibels (dB)”. [1]

2. Filter
“Electronic filters are circuits which perform signal processing functions, specifically to remove
unwanted frequency components from the signal, to enhance wanted ones, or both.

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Filter response Types

I. High-pass and Low-pass

High-Pass and Low-Pass filters are the simplest forms of digital filters, and they are relatively easy to
design to specifications. This page will discuss high-pass and low-pass transfer functions, and the
implementations of each as FIR and IIR designs.
II. Band-pass
Band-pass Filters are like a combination of a high-pass and a low-pass filter. Only specific bands are
allowed to pass through the filter. Frequencies that are too high or too low will be rejected by the filt
III. Stop-band
Stop- Band are the complement of Band-pass filters in that they only stop a certain narrow band of
frequency information, and allow all other data to pass without problem”. [1]

3. Field Effect Transistor (FET)

“The field-effect transistor (FET) is a transistor that uses an electric field to control the electrical
behaviour of the device. FETs are also known as unipolar transistors since they involve single-carrier-
type operation. Many different implementations of field effect transistors exist. Field effect transistors
generally display very high input impedance at low frequencies. The conductivity between the drain
and source terminals is controlled by an electric field in the device, which is generated by the voltage
difference between the body and the gate of the device.
FETs can be majority-charge-carrier devices, in which the current is carried predominantly by majority
carriers, or minority-charge-carrier devices, in which the current is mainly due to a flow of minority
carriers.[3] The device consists of an active channel through which charge carriers, electrons or holes,
flow from the source to the drain. Source and drain terminal conductors are connected to the
semiconductor through ohmic contacts. The conductivity of the channel is a function of the potential
applied across the gate and source terminals.
The FET's three terminals are:
1. source (S), through which the carriers enter the channel. Conventionally, current entering the
channel at S is designated by IS.
2. drain (D), through which the carriers leave the channel. Conventionally, current entering the
channel at D is designated by ID. Drain-to-source voltage is VDS.
3. gate (G), the terminal that modulates the channel conductivity. By applying voltage to G, one
can control ID”. [1]

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 Fig 1. Cross section of an n-type MOSFET [1]

4. Biasing circuit
“Transistor Biasing is the process of setting a transistors DC operating voltage or current conditions to
the correct level so that any AC input signal can be amplified correctly by the transistor. A transistors
steady state of operation depends a great deal on its base current, collector voltage, and collector current
and therefore, if a transistor is to operate as a linear amplifier, it must be properly biased to have a
suitable operating point.
Establishing the correct operating point requires the proper selection of bias resistors and load resistors
to provide the appropriate input current and collector voltage conditions. The correct biasing point for
a bipolar transistor, either NPN or PNP, generally lies somewhere between the two extremes of
operation with respect to it being either “fully-ON” or “fully-OFF” along its load line. This central
operating point is called the “Quiescent Operating Point”, or Q-point for short.

When a bipolar transistor is biased so that the Q-point is near the middle of its operating range, that is
approximately halfway between cut-off and saturation, it is said to be operating as a Class-A amplifier.
This mode of operation allows the output current to increase and decrease around the amplifiers Q-point
without distortion as the input signal swings through a complete cycle. In other words, the output current
flows for the full 360o of the input cycle”. [2]

5. Matching circuits
“Impedance matching is a major problem in high frequency circuit design. It is concerned with
matching one part of a circuit to another in order to achieve maximum power transfer between
the two parts”. [1]

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 Fig.2 Impedances of various Components [3]

6. S parameters
“Scattering parameters or S-parameters (the elements of a scattering matrix or S-matrix) describe the
electrical behaviour of linear electrical networks when undergoing various steady state stimuli by
electrical signals. The S-parameters are members of a family of similar parameters, other examples
being: Y-parameters.Z-parameters, H-parameters, T-parameters or ABCD-parameters. They differ
from these, in the sense that S-parameters do not use open or short circuit conditions to characterize a
linear electrical network; instead, matched loads are used. These terminations are much easier to use at
high signal frequencies than open-circuit and short-circuit terminations. Moreover, the quantities are
measured in terms of power.
Many electrical properties of networks of components (inductors, capacitors, resistors) may be
expressed using S-parameters, such as gain, return loss, voltage standing wave ratio(VSWR), reflection
coefficient and amplifier stability. The term 'scattering' is more common to optical engineering than RF
engineering, referring to the effect observed when a plane electromagnetic wave is incident on an
obstruction or passes across dissimilar dielectric media. In the context of S-parameters, scattering refers
to the way in which the traveling currents and voltages in a transmission line are affected when they
meet a discontinuity caused by the insertion of a network into the transmission line. This is equivalent
to the wave meeting an impedance differing from the line's characteristic impedance.
Although applicable at any frequency, S-parameters are mostly used for networks operating at radio
frequency (RF) and microwave frequencies where signal power and energy considerations are more
easily quantified than currents and voltages. S-parameters change with the measurement frequency, so
frequency must be specified for any S-parameter measurements stated, in addition to the characteristic
impedance or system impedance”. [1]

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Two-Port S-Parameters

“The S-parameter matrix for the 2-port network is probably the most commonly used and serves as the
basic building block for generating the higher order matrices for larger networks. In this case the
relationship between the reflected, incident power waves and the S-parameter matrix is given by” [1]

Fig.3 Two Port S Parameter [4]

7. Stability Circles
“Stability circles determine what load or source impedances should be avoided for stable or non-
oscillatory amplifier behavior. Because reactive loads are being added to amp the conditions for
oscillation must be determined. So, the Output Stability Circle determine the Γ L or load impedance
(looking into matching network from output of amp) that may cause oscillation Input Stability Circle
determine the Γ S or impedance (looking into matching network from input of amp) that may cause
oscillation Criteria for Unconditional Stability.

Unconditional Stability
When amplifier remains stable throughout the entire domain of the Smith Chart at the operating bias
and frequency”. [1]

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 Fig.4 Calculation of stability [5]

2) METHODOLOGY
i. Determining S-Parameters
S-Parameters were determined from the datasheet of the FET MMRF1014NT1. The centre frequency
at which the amplifier is working is 0.8 GHz. Therefore, the s11, s12, s21 and s22 values against 0.8
GHz frequency were noted as shown in the fig.5.

Fig.5 Datasheet of the given FET

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ii. Obtaining input and output match using Smith Chart
 To obtain the input match, the value of s11 (0.848 ang -143.950) is plotted and
inductors and capacitors are added in series or parallel, in-order to match the circuit.
Shunt stubs are open circuited at 50 ohms.
 Fig.6 shows the corresponding smith chart obtained.

Fig.6 Input matching using Smith Chart

 To obtain the output match, the value of s22 (0.750 ang -75.350) is plotted and
inductors and capacitors are added in series or parallel, in-order to match the circuit.
Shunt stubs are open circuited at 50 ohms.
 Fig.7 shows the corresponding smith chart obtained.

Fig.7 Output matching using Smith Chart

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 iii. Modelling the components in MWO
 The electrical length in MWO is given in degrees, therefore the physical length (93.7mm)
obtained from fig.6 and fig.7 for input and output matching respectively should be converted
into degrees.

V= 3*108 / √Er
All the matching components are designed assuming implementation with microstrip on 1.6mm FR4 as
defined in Microwave Office where height= 20 mils and permittivity= 4.5

Therefore, V= 3*108 / √4.5

V= 1.41*108
Wavelength, λ = V/ f
= (0.8*109 )-1 *1.41*108
λ= 0.17625
β= 2π / λ
=2π / 0.17625

β= 35.649
Electrical length in degree, EL = (180*β*93.7*10-3)/π
El=191.385֯

 Fig.8 shows the modelling of a matched filter at the input.

Fig.8 Matched filter at the input using MWO

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 Fig.9 shows the modelling of a matched filter at the input.

Fig.9 Matched filter at the output using MWO

 The values of capacitors, inductors and transmission lines in fig.6 and fig.7 are different
than that in the fig.8 and fig.9. This is because from the fig.6 and fig.7, the values are
initially used but are then optimised using an optimiser to get a better response and
performance.
 The fig.10 shows the biasing circuit required to get the FET working in the linear mode (Class
A amplifier).

Fig.10 Biasing circuit for the FET

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  Fig.11 shows the full circuit diagram of the final amplifier design. It takes into consideration
the input and output matching circuit; and the biasing circuit.

Fig.11 The full amplifier design

iv. Transmission of the filters from the full amplifier circuit

a) Calculate the wc from the centre frequency fc by using the formula,
Wc =2π*fc

Therefore, wc = 0.50 * 1010

b) Consider the following low-pass filter at the input and the output side fig and fig respectively
which has a been normalised to wc = 0.50 * 1010 and is matched to an impedance of 1 Ω.

RRs= 1ohm
L1=2.1nH L4=6.55nH

C2= 8.2pF RRs= 1ohm

RRs=1ohm L2=15.1nH L3=1.14nH

C3=8.38 pF RRs= 1ohm

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c) Calculate the impedances for different values of L and C of the input and output match, by
using the equations below,
Zl = wc L
Zc = 1 / wc*C

Impedance Input match Output match

L1 L4 C2 L2 L3 C3
Z 10.5 32.75 24.39 75.5 5.7 23.86
Normalise 0.21 0.655 0.48 1.51 0.114 0.477
to 50 ohms

d) By swapping the inductors and capacitors with microstrips we get (Richard’s

Transformation)

Z = 0.21 Z = 0.655

Rs= 1 ohm

Rl= 1 ohm

Z = 0.48
Wc =0.8GHz

Z = 1.51 Z = 0.114

Rs= 1 ohm

Rl= 1 ohm

Z = 0.477
Wc =0.8GHz

e) If we add a length of transmission line after the series stub, we can convert it into a shunt stub:

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The extra piece of transmission line does not change the performance of the filter, it will just add a
phase shift, this type of design is called redundant filter synthesis. If we swap the input and output
of the above circuit then

f) Applying Kuroda’s 2nd identity, microstrip circuit becomes

ZZ0= 1.2096 ZZ0= 1.654

ZZ0= 0.030 ZZ0= 0.48

ZZ0= 0.395

ZZ0= 2.51 ZZ0= 1.11

ZZ0= 0.60 ZZ0= 0.477 ZZ0= 0.102

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g) Impedance scaling
Just multiply the characteristic impedance of each transmission line stub by the impedance of
50 ohms.
Frequency scaling
Make the length of each transmission line stub 𝑙 = 𝜆 ⁄ 8 (l = 22.03*10-3) for the required cut-
off frequency.
h) Using CST, the widths of the respective impedances are obtained.

Fig.12 Designing microstrip using CST

i) The final transmission of the filters using MWR looks like fig.13

Fig.13 The final transmission of the filters using MWO

3. RESULTS
a. The Smith Chart matching for the input and output in shown in fig.6 and fig.7 above.
b. The following values for the trace-width were obtained for the different values of the
impedances using CST.
The impedance is inversely proportional to the trace width. As impedance increases, the
trace width decreases.

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 Impedance (ohms) Trace width (mm)
60.48 2.4113
82.7 1.232
1.5 15
24 5.3389
19.75 11.5477
50 3.05
125.5 0.576
55.5 2.4113
30 4.0582
23.85 5.3389
5.1 13.83

c. The response and the Smith Chart representation of the FET, amplifier, biasing circuit
and the matching circuits is given by the fig.14 and fig.15 respectively.

Fig.14 Response of FET, amplifier, biasing circuit and the matching circuits

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 Fig.15 Smith Chart representation of FET, amplifier, biasing circuit and the matching circuits

The points lie inside the circle; therefore, they have reflection coefficients less than one and hence have
a finite and bounded area. The impedances which are considered in this amplifier design are all defined.

d. “S11 and S22 are input and output reflection coefficients, respectively. S11 is the input
reflection coefficient with the output port terminated in a matched load, as in when ZL =
Z0. S22 is the output reflection coefficient when the input port is terminated in a matched
load. S21 and S12 are the forward and reverse transmission gains, respectively with both
being terminated in matched loads”. [7]
The response and the Smith Chart representation of the s11 and s22 parameters of the
amplifier circuit is given by the fig.16 and fig.17 respectively.

Fig.16 Response of s11 and s22 parameters of the amplifier circuit

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The value of s11 and s22 should be near to zero for the best possible transmission at a given centre
frequency. The value being near to zero concludes that transmission losses are less when the input and
the output ports are matched.

Fig.17 Smith Chart representation of s11 and s22 parameters of the amplifier circuit

e. The response of the s12, s21 parameters and gain of the amplifier circuit is given by the
fig.18.

Fig.18 response of the s12, s21 and the gain of the amplifier

The s21 curve is greater than s12 curve which proves that more power transferred to the receiver end.

The gain of the full amplifier circuit is 22.37 dB for the centre frequency of 0.8GHz.

f. The fig.19 and fig.20, calculate the gain for the input and the output matching circuit
which is -2.493 dB and -5.431 dB respectively.

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 Fig.19 Gain of the input matching circuit

Fig.20 Gain of the output matching circuit

g. The fig.21 and fig.22 shows the stability response of the transistor and the amplifier. For
the stable response.
Since both the figures have K >1, the maximum gain value is finite and the overall design
of the amplifier is said to be stable.

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 Fig.21 Stability of the transistor

Fig.22 Stability of the amplifier

h. The fig.23 depicts the stability circle of the amplifier design.

The stability circle gives the forbidden area of the designed amplifier.

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 Fig.23 Stability circle of the amplifier

REFERENCES
1. www.wikipedia.com
2. https://www.electronics-tutorials.ws/amplifier/transistor-biasing.html
3. Impedance Matching.pdf by Michael Tse
4. http://www.ece.ucsb.edu/~long/ece145a/Notes4_Sparams.pdf
5. http://home.sandiego.edu/~ekim/e194rfs01/lec23ek.pdf
6. http://thebeekeeper.net/sci/sparams.pdf

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