Co-Design of a GPS Antenna Low-Noise Amplifier Front-End Circuit

• Autor(a) principal: Sakomura,Eduardo S.
• Data de Publicação: 2019
• Outros Autores: Boada,Diego F. M., Nascimento,Daniel C.
• Tipo de documento: Artigo
• Idioma: eng
• Título da fonte: Journal of Microwaves. Optoelectronics and Electromagnetic Applications
• Texto Completo: http://old.scielo.br/scielo.php?script=sci_arttext&pid=S2179-10742019000400545
• topic: Active integrated antenna; co-design; direct matching; front-end circuit; low noise amplifier; microstrip antenna

Abstract This paper presents a clear and fast design procedure for directly matched low noise active integrated microstrip antenna front end circuits. Initially, a theoretical analysis is given for the overall gain equivalence between traditional and directly matched antennas. Then, a detailed procedure is presented for the design and construction of a fully integrated GPS antenna. To validate the proposed procedure, a prototype was built and characterized by measuring the reflection coefficient, radiation pattern, noise figure and the active antenna overall gain. Additionally, a field test comparison was made between the manufactured prototype and a commercially available active antenna using the u-blox NEO-6M GPS receiver module. The prototype experimental and field test results showed excellent performance, thus validating the proposed co-design approach.