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High gain RF amplifier for very low frequency receiver application

Conference Paper · October 2014

DOI: 10.1109/ICITEED.2014.7007925

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 High Gain RF Amplifier for Very Low Frequency
Receiver Application
Rahmat Putera1 , Kusnandar2, Asep Najmurrokhman2, Sunubroto2, Chairunnisa1 and Achmad Munir1∗
1
Radio Telecommunication and Microwave Laboratory
School of Electrical Engineering and Infomatics, Institut Teknologi Bandung, Indonesia
2
Department of Electrical Engineering, Faculty of Engineering
University of Jenderal Achmad Yani, Indonesia
∗ munir@ieee.org
Abstract—Due to the wide usage of very low frequency (VLF)
wave for research on natural phenomena such as lightning, earth-
quake, and weather, a receiver for VLF application particularly
with high-gain is absolutely required. This paper discusses about
designing, realizing and characterizing a high gain radio fre-
quency (RF) amplifier for VLF receiver application. The proposed
amplifier which is designed using a junction field-effect transistor
(JFET) of 2SK170 and an operational amplifier (OpAmp) of
OP27 is intended to work at frequency range below 50kHz.
After achieving the optimum design, the hardware realization
is then carried out by deploying the designed amplifier on a
printed circuit board. From the experimental characterization, it
shows that the measured gain of realized amplifier at frequency
of 19.8kHz satisfies with the design criteria and is 46.003dB with
1-dB compression point of -24dBm.
Keywords—RF amplifier; high-gain; JFET; OpAmp; very low
frequency receiver.
I. I NTRODUCTION
VLF wave which is also known as myriametre wave
is naturally generated by a variety of natural phenomena.
Lightning is one of the phenomena that generates VLF wave
dominantly in nature. VLF wave can also be produced elec-
tronically by human where it has been recently applied for
numerous applications such as for radio service navigation
and military communication [1]– [2]. The wave which is in
the frequency range of 3-30kHz has the capability to achieve
very long distance and easily affected by the condition of
ionosphere. However, the use of such common antenna will
not be effective since the wavelength is of 10km to 100km.
Moreover, to compensate an unavoidable matter influenced by
natural phenomena, a high performance equipment is definitely
required for VLF wave communication.
It is already well-known that wireless communication using
VLF wave is very important especially in submarine communi-
cations. In addition, VLF wave is also implemented for weather
observation and research that uses electromagnetic wave. At-
mospheric, Weather, Electromagnetic System for Observation,
Modeling, and Education (AWESOME) is one of the research
projects that has VLF wave transmitter spread around the
This work is partially supported by the 2014 Collaboration between HEIs
Research Grant (Hibah PEKERTI 2014) Contract No. 1107/K4/KM/2014
from the Directorate General of Higher Education, Ministry of Culture and
Education, the Republic of Indonesia.
world [3]. Reliability of communication by using VLF wave
is certainly important so that the research can be run properly.
In order to maintain the reliability of communication using
VLF wave, an RF amplifier is one of the essential devices
required for the communication. It is significant to ensure
that VLF wave signals arriving at the VLF receiver can be
processed further without defecting the contained information
inside the signals. Thus, the amplifier with high-gain and low-
noise capability will be required to support the transceiver
system in VLF wave communication.
In this paper, a high gain RF amplifier is proposed to be
investigated for designing, realizing and characterizing. The
proposed amplifier which is intended to work at frequency
range below 50kHz for VLF receiver application uses low-
noise JFET 2SK170 and high-gain OpAmp OP27 as main
components to achieve the required specification. In addition,
the amplifier is also expected to have good linearity along
the desired frequency range. Therefore, gain and linearity of
proposed RF amplifier will be some of parameters that are
more focused in the development process. Other parameters
design such as noise figure and stability factor will also be
included in the investigation to achieve an optimum design of
RF amplifier.
II. OVERVIEW OF RF A MPLIFIER D ESIGN
A. JFET and OpAmp Characteristics
There are several parameters that become concerns in
designing RF amplifier for VLF receiver application, namely
gain, noise figure, sensitivity, and linearity. Among those
parameters, in this paper the fist and the last parameters, i.e.
gain and linearity, will be paid more attention due to their
important roles to acquire the required specification. To achieve
the objectives, a junction field-effect transistor (JFET) 2SK170
and an operational amplifier (OpAmp) OP27 are employed in
the design of high gain RF amplifier. The use of JFET as a
front-end component of amplifier is based on consideration
that JFET has mostly better noise performance compared to
other type of transistor such as bipolar junction transistor (BJT)
or metaloxidesemiconductor field-effect transistor (MOSFET)
[4]– [5]. Meanwhile, the OpAmp OP27 is chosen involving
in the design since it has capability to process the signal
precisely combines with the high gain and good linearity.
Some parameters of JFET 2SK170 and OpAmp OP27 are
summarized in Tables I and II, respectively.
 For obtaining an optimum noise performance of JFET, as B. RF Amplifier Design and Numerical Characterization
mentioned in [6], the JFET should be biased with voltage of
VGS in vicinity of zero. This is to make sure that the used JFET In small-signal analysis, AC voltage and current are used
will work properly and has low noise performance. In contrary, to provide the expected result. A capacitor is connected
the gain characteristic of RF amplifier has to be considered respectively to the input and output of RF amplifier . Here,
so that the signal is enough amplified after being processed capacitor has a role as DC blocker in order to prevent the
through the amplifier. Thus, in this design, the operating point DC signal flowing into amplifier circuit or vice versa. The
for JFET is determined as follows; VGS = -0.3V, ID = 2mA and value of capacitor is chosen high enough to create a flat fre-
VDS = 13V. Furthermore, to achieve the optimum condition, quency response particularly in gain achievement. Meanwhile,
some external resistors as DC voltage divider connecting to to provide higher gain an OpAmp with inverting amplifier
every pin of JFET have these following resistance values; RG configuration is deployed for the second stage amplifier. Fig. 1
= 1kΩ, RS = 150Ω, RD = 470Ω, whilst the voltage of DC shows the basic circuit configuration of RF amplifier powered
source, VDD , is set to be 15V. by a JFET 2SK170 and OpAmp OP27 with the input port RFIN
is connected to a signal generator, whilst the output port RFOUT
is connected to 50Ω load. The performance of RF amplifier
TABLE I. PARAMETERS OF JFET 2SK170 circuit is analyzed through its scattering parameters.
Parameter Symbol Value 
Pinch-off voltage Vto -0.5211 (V)
Transconductance B 0.03683 (AV−2 m−2 )


 
Channel-length modulation λ 4.982 x 10−3 (V−1 )



Drain resistance Rd 0 (Ω)

  
Source resistance Rs 0 (Ω) 

  




Gate saturation current Is 1 x 10−9 (A)


 

G-S junction capacitance Cgs 5.647 x 10 −11
(F)





G-D junction capacitance Cgd 2.562 x 10−11 (F) 



 
 
Gate junction potential Pb 4.86 (V)
Forward-bias depletion
Fc 0.5
capacitance coefficient
Fig. 1. Basic circuit configuration of RF amplifier for small-signal analysis
Nominal temperature Tnom 25o (C) (CP1 and CP2 components and varied value of RIN ∗ and ROUT ∗ are for gain
Flicker noise exponent Af 1 and noise figure optimizations)
Maximum current Imax 20 x 10−3 (A)
P-N gate emission coefficient N 1
Figs. 2 and 3 plot the result of small-signal analysis for
reflection and transmission coefficients, respectively. From Fig.
I emission coefficient Nr 2
2, although the values of S11 and S22 have satisfied the design
P-N gate grading coefficient M 0.5
criteria, however it indicates that some optimization is required
Saturate current to obtain an optimum performance of RF amplifier design. The
Xti 3
exponent temperature value of S11 needs to be more lowered in order to reduce the
Flicker noise frequency exponent Ffe 1 reflected signal from the input port to the source. Hence from
Fig. 3, the transmission coefficients have also accomplished
the specification although the value of S21 which represents
TABLE II. PARAMETERS OF O PA MP OP27 gain of RF amplifier still needs to be improved.

Parameter Symbol Value 

Offset input voltage Vos 30 x 10 −6
(V)
B
Offset input current Ios 12 x 10−9 (A) A
@
?%  CDD
Input bias current Ib ±15 x 10 (A) >8 CEE
−9

67
1
Equivalent input noise voltage en 3.2 10−9 (VHz− 2 )
7
=
1
Equivalent input noise current in 0.4 10 (AHz− 2 )
5
−12
8%!
Differential mode input resistance Rin 4 x 106 (Ω) 5
<
Rin-cm 2 x 109 (Ω) ;
Common mode input resistance
:
98
Common mode rejection ratio CMRR 120 (dB) 67
6 %"
Large voltage signal gain Avo 1500 (V/mV) 5
4
3
Output voltage swing Vo ±13.5 (V)
Slew rate SR 2.8 (V/µs)
%#
Gain bandwidth product GBW 8 (MHz)   ! " # $
Output open loop resistance Ro 70 (Ω) &'()*(+,- ./012
Power dissipation Pd 100 x 10−3 (W)
Fig. 2. Reflection coefficients (S11 and S22 ) of RF amplifier circuit
 ptooo ouot
Other parameters which are also important in RF amplifier
design are stability factor. Basically, the stability factor has 2
main parameters namely K and ∆. Fig. 4 depicts the graph ouos
of 2 parameters of stability factor for RF amplifier design. It
should be noted that the stability requirement of RF amplifier poooo
is satisfied if the value of K > 1 and |∆| < 1 [7]– [8]. From ‰„‡ ouor
ˆ‡
the results, it can be concluded that those 2 stability factors †
have accomplished the requirements for frequency range of 1- „…
ƒ ouoq
50kHz. Whilst, the gain and noise figure performances in small tooo
signal analysis are shown in Fig. 5. It indicates that the value Š ‹ Œ|Žw Ž‘’“’Ž}
of Gmax is enough close to the value of S21 shown in Fig. 3, ” ‹ Œ|Žw Ž‘’“’Ž} ouop
whilst the noise figure that reaches 82.5dB should be improved.
Therefore, in optimization process, a few components will be
added at the input- and output-side of RF amplifier to achieve o o
o po qo ro so to
better performance characteristics both in gain and noise figure. vwxyzx{|} ~€‚
In general, the gain of amplifier is normally higher than the
value of S21 . Thus, the value of S21 will rarely be the same Fig. 4. K-factor and ∆-factor stabilities of RF amplifier circuit
with the value of Gmax .
˜œ ›˜
JF

k
j
i
h F lmn ¶
g ˜— ›— µ́
^ lnm
ad
fae ¶ ³
µ́ ®
²
e ³ ±
d °
¬
bLJF ¬¹ ¯
c ¸
^ · ®
b
a_ ¬­
—› ›– «
a_ º»¼½ ª
` LMF
_ ¾¿ÀÁŸ ÂÀស
^
]
\
[
LGHF —™ ›•
• –• —• ˜• ™• š•
F GF HF IF JF KF žŸ ¡Ÿ¢£¤ ¥¦§¨©
NOPQRPSTU VWXYZ
Fig. 5. Gain and noise figure of RF amplifier circuit
Fig. 3. Transmission coefficient (S12 and S21 ) of RF amplifier circuit
TABLE III. C HARACTERISTICS OF RF AMPLIFIER AT FREQUENCY
Furthermore, coupling capacitor is important in the RF OF 19.8 K H Z

amplifier circuit configuration so that the amplifier can produce

Parameter Value
high gain and low noise. As illustrated in Fig. 1, the optimiza-
Gain 47.009dB
tion is conducted by adding a capacitor to yield better RF
Noise figure 1.479dB
amplifier characteristics. Two capacitors are coupled with the
resistors for JFET and OpAmp, i.e. CP1 and CP2 , respectively. Sensitivity -125.521dBm

The first capacitor (CP1 ) is coupled with the resistor connected 1-dB compression point -26dBm

the Source pin of JFET to the ground, whereas the second one
(CP2 ) is placed in parallel to the resistor that connects non-
inverting input pin of OpAmp to the ground. These value of
capacitors is chosen high enough so that the performance of
RF amplifier is much better.
Another optimization is conducted by changing the value
of resistors at the input and output ports of RF amplifier,
i.e. RIN ∗ and ROUT ∗, respectively. For the input-port, the
value of resistor connecting the Gate pin of JFET to the
ground (RIN ∗) is increased to lower noise figure. This is
effective method as it can decrease the input current affecting
to the lower noise figure. In other hand, the value of series
resistor for the output-port (ROUT ∗) is decreased to obtain
higher gain of amplifier. Table III summarizes the amplifier
characteristics after optimization at frequency of 19.8kHz as
one of frequencies used in the AWESOME project.
III. E XPERIMENTAL C HARACTERIZATION AND
D ISCUSSION
To verify the simulation result, a hardware realization
is carried out by deploying the RF amplifier design circuit
on a printed circuit board (PCB). Fig. 6 shows the picture
of realized RF amplifier on a PCB. Then, the experimental
characterization is carried out to measure some parameters
of realized RF amplifier to be compared with the design
results. Due to the unavailability of measurement tools for
the experimental characterization, therefore only gain and
linearity parameters of realized RF amplifier are measured
experimentally. The measured gain and linearity are plotted
in Figs. 7 and 8, respectively, with the design results depicted
together for comparison.
 The gain of realized RF amplifier shown in Fig. 7 is èé
measured with input signal at -30dBm, while the linearity
depicted in Fig. 8 is measured by decreasing input signal øóö ô îë
øóö ô î 
generator at some different frequencies. In linearity charac-
 êï øóö ô êé
terization, the input and output signal is measured at 18kHz,

ÿ ö
ñ
19kHz, and 20kHz. From the result, it can be seen that the þ
gain performance of realized RF amplifier has good agreement ü
ûêé
with the design result. Some fluctuation of measured gain ý
ü
û
is evoked by instability of signal generator amplitude. The ú
similar tendency occurs for linearity of realized RF amplifier
in which the result has coincided with the design result. It can îï
be concluded that the realized RF amplifier has the measured
gain of 46.003dB and 1-dB compression point for frequency
19.8kHz of -24dBm in which these are about 1dB lower than îé
the result of simulated gain and 2dB higher than the result of çèé çêë çêì çêí çêê çêé
simulated linearity. ðñòóô õö÷øù

Fig. 8. Measured linearity of realized RF amplifier for some frequencies

with design result as comparison

OP27 has agreed very well with the design result. It has been
shown that optimization at the input-side and the output-side
was required to achieve the requirements. The coupling capac-
itor has played a important role to improve the performance of
RF amplifier. From the experimental characterization results,
it has been demonstrated that the realized RF amplifier has
had the measured gain of 46.003dB and 1-dB compression
point for frequency 19.8kHz of -24dBm in which the results
were comparable to the design results. However, due to the
unavailability of measurement tool, not all parameters of RF
amplifier could be characterized experimentally.
Fig. 6. Picture of realized RF amplifier on a printed circuit board

ÉÄ
ACKNOWLEDGMENT
The authors wish to thank to Mr. Zenal Aripin and Mr.
Kusmadi, both from School of Electrical Engineering and In-
ÈË
formatics, Institut Teknologi Bandung (ITB) for strong support
and assistances in experimental characterization.
à ÈÊ
ß
Þ
Ý
ÛÜ R EFERENCES
Ú
ÙÈÈ áÎâãÐÍÎä [1] M. A. Persinger, ELF and VLF electromagnetic field effect, 1st Ed., New
äÎãåæÑ York: Plenum Press, 1974.
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ÈÆ Atmos. Sol-Terr. Phys., Vol. 62, pp. 1698–1718, 2000.
[3] ————— “AWESOME & SID,” http://beta.iswi-secretariat.org/iswi-
projects/instruments/awesomesid/, (accessed on April 23, 2014).
ÈÄ
Ä ÅÄ ÆÄ ÇÄ ÈÄ ÉÄ [4] A. M. R. Ferrari, “Operating point of a FET for optimum noise
ÌÍÎÏÐÎÑÒÓ ÔÕÖ×Ø performance,” Nucl. Instrum. Methods Phys. Res., Vol. 52, Issue 1, pp.
179, Jun. 1967.
Fig. 7. Measured gain of realized RF amplifier with design result as [5] F. A. Levinzon, “Ultra-low noise high-input impedance amplifier for low-
comparison frequency measurement applications,” IEEE Trans. Circuits Syst. I, Reg.
Papers, Vol. 55, No. 7, pp. 1815-1822, Aug. 2008.
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