uPC8236T6N

RF Applications Engineering Technical Note μPC8236T6N Three Circuit Configurations For GPS Application o Introduction o Circuit Description o Performance Data Introduction NEC’s uPC8236T6N is a silicon germanium carbon (SiGe:C) MMIC designed as low noise amplifier for GPS applications. It features low supply voltage, low noise figure and high gain. It also includes an integrated output matching circuit, a robust bandgap regulator, and ESD protection circuits. More detailed technical specifications can be found in uPG8236T6N’s datasheet, available on CEL’s website: www.cel.com. In the early days of GPS applications, most GPS receivers were stand-alone devices. In that case, the in-band RF performance specs are usually the critical parameters for a low noise amplifier front end design. The recent trend, however, is the integration of GPS receivers into more and more wireless products, such as cell phones and various short range wireless devices. In these applications, there are often strong out-of-band (OOB) signals in the proximity of GPS receiver, which can severely degrade the GPS receiving sensitivity. Consequently the OOB specifications of a front-end amplifier are equally important as in-band specifications for achieving an optimized GPS system performance in many applications. Generally there are two approaches in dealing with the OOB signal interference: i. ii. Use a filter to reduce the OOB signal strength at the amplifier. Increase the linearity, which is usually...