BFP640ESD Ultra Low Noise Amplifier for 2.5 - 2.7 GHz WLAN & WiMAX A pplications A pplication Note AN218 Revision: Rev. 1.0 2010-06-30 RF and Protection Devices Edition 2010-06-30 Published by Infineon Technologies AG 81726 Munich, Germany © 2010 Infineon Technologies AG All Rights Reserved. Legal Disclaimer The information given in this document shall in no event be regarded as a guarantee of conditions or characteristics. With respect to any examples or hints given herein, any typical values stated herein and/or any information regarding the application of the device, Infineon Technologies hereby disclaims any and all warranties and liabilities of any kind, including without limitation, warranties of non-infringement of intellectual property rights of any third party. Information For further information on technology, delivery terms and conditions and prices, please contact the nearest Infineon Technologies Office (www.infineon.com). Warnings Due to technical requirements, components may contain dangerous substances. For information on the types in question, please contact the nearest Infineon Technologies Office. Infineon Technologies components may be used in life-support devices or systems only with the express written approval of Infineon Technologies, if a failure of such components can reasonably be expected to cause the failure of that life-support device or system or to affect the safety or effectiveness of that device or system. Life support devices or systems are intended to be implanted in the human body or to support and/or maintain and sustain and/or protect human life. If they fail, it is reasonable to assume that the health of the user or other persons may be endangered. BFP640ESD LNA for 2.5 - 2.7 GHz WLAN & WiMAX Application Note AN218 Revision History: 2010-06-30 Previous Revision: No Previous Revision Page Subjects (major changes since last revision) Trademarks of Infineon Technologies AG A-GOLD™, BlueMoon™, COMNEON™, CONVERGATE™, COSIC™, C166™, CROSSAVE™, CanPAK™, CIPOS™, CoolMOS™, CoolSET™, CONVERPATH™, CORECONTROL™, DAVE™, DUALFALC™, DUSLIC™, EasyPIM™, EconoBRIDGE™, EconoDUAL™, EconoPACK™, EconoPIM™, E-GOLD™, EiceDRIVER™, EUPEC™, ELIC™, EPIC™, FALC™, FCOS™, FLEXISLIC™, GEMINAX™, GOLDMOS™, HITFET™, HybridPACK™, INCA™, ISAC™, ISOFACE™, IsoPACK™, IWORX™, M-GOLD™, MIPAQ™, ModSTACK™, MUSLIC™, my-d™, NovalithIC™, OCTALFALC™, OCTAT™, OmniTune™, OmniVia™, OptiMOS™, OPTIVERSE™, ORIGA™, PROFET™, PRO-SIL™, PrimePACK™, QUADFALC™, RASIC™, ReverSave™, SatRIC™, SCEPTRE™, SCOUT™, S-GOLD™, SensoNor™, SEROCCO™, SICOFI™, SIEGET™, SINDRION™, SLIC™, SMARTi™, SmartLEWIS™, SMINT™, SOCRATES™, TEMPFET™, thinQ!™, TrueNTRY™, TriCore™, TRENCHSTOP™, VINAX™, VINETIC™, VIONTIC™, WildPass™, X-GOLD™, XMM™, X-PMU™, XPOSYS™, XWAY™. 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 AN218, Rev. 1.0 3 / 21 2010-06-30 BFP640ESD LNA for 2.5 - 2.7 GHz WLAN & WiMAX List of Content, Figures and Tables Table of Content 1 Introduction ........................................................................................................................................5 2 Application Information.....................................................................................................................6 3 Typical Measurement Results...........................................................................................................8 4 Measured Graphs...............................................................................................................................9 5 Evaluation Board Information.........................................................................................................18 6 ESD Protection .................................................................................................................................19 Authors 20 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 Application Diagram .............................................................................................................................5 Schematics of the application circuit ....................................................................................................6 Power Gain of the BFP640ESD for 2.5GHz WLAN & WiMAX Application..........................................9 Noise Figure of the BFP640ESD for 2.5GHz WLAN & WiMAX Application ......................................10 Input Matching of the BFP640ESD for 2.5GHz WLAN & WiMAX Application ...................................11 Output Matching of the BFP640ESD for 2.5GHz WLAN & WiMAX Application ................................12 Compression Point at 1dB of the BFP640ESD for 2.5GHz WLAN & WiMAX Application.................13 Reverse Isolation of the BFP640ESD for 2.5GHz WLAN & WiMAX Application...............................14 K Factor Stability of the BFP640ESD for 2.5GHz WLAN & WiMAX Application ...............................15 3rd Order Intercept Point of the BFP640ESD for 2.5GHz WLAN & WiMAX Application ....................16 Input and Output Matching Z-Parameter of the BFP640ESD for 2.5GHz WLAN & WiMAX Application..........................................................................................................................................17 Photo Picture of Evaluation Board .....................................................................................................18 PCB Layer Information.......................................................................................................................18 List of Tables Table 1 Table 2 Table 3 Bill-of-Materials.....................................................................................................................................7 Electrical Characteristics (T = 25 °C) ...................................................................................................8 Noise Figure .......................................................................................................................................10 Application Note AN218, Rev. 1.0 4 / 21 2010-06-30 BFP640ESD LNA for 2.5 - 2.7 GHz WLAN & WiMAX TIntroduction 1 Introduction The BFP640ESD is an outstanding performance bipolar transistor intented to a wide range of wireless applications. It is based upon Infineon Technologies’ B7HF 70 GHz fT SiliconGermanium (Si:Ge) technology, allowing a cost-effective solution with excellent performance at low current consumption. 1.1 Applications The actual application note presents the performance of BFP640ESD protected by an ESD protection diode circuit (maximum peak voltage of 3kV). Using BFP640ESD on electronic applications offers the security to protect the devices by Electro Static Discharge. Therefore, the BFP640ESD avoids adding additional part in order to protect the system of ESD. The BFP640ESD is presented here using external parts for WLAN & WiMAX configuration. (please refer to Figure 1). Rx Diplexer DPDT Balun WLAN / WiMAX Transceiver & Baseband BFP640ESD Antenna diversity Tx Diplexer Figure 1 LNA PA Balun Application Diagram Application Note AN218, Rev. 1.0 5 / 21 2010-06-30 BFP640ESD LNA for 2.5 - 2.7 GHz WLAN & WiMAX Application Information 2 Application Information 2.1 Schematics of the BFP640ESD for 2.5 – 2.7 GHz WLAN & WiMAX Figure 2 shows the schematics of the optimized circuit working at 3.0V and 7.3mA. The two microstrip lines of 0.9mm length each are designed for the FR4 PCB board with the RF ground metal layer of 250µm beneath the top metal layer of the mircostrip lines. In order to avoid unexpected feedback amoung the input, output, Vcc line and emitter grounding, the grounding positions of C3/C4, C5/C6 and the microstrips M1 must be well separated. Figure 2 Schematics of the application circuit Application Note AN218, Rev. 1.0 6 / 21 2010-06-30 BFP640ESD LNA for 2.5 - 2.7 GHz WLAN & WiMAX Application Information Table 1 shows the bill of materials used in this circuit. Table 1 Bill-of-Materials Symbol Value Unit Size Manufacturer Comment C1 8.2 pF 0402 Various DC blocking, input C2 1.5 pF 0402 Various DC block, output. Also influences output and input impedance match. C3 0.1 μF 0402 Various Decoupling, low frequency. Also improves Third-Order Intercept. C4 8.2 pF 0402 Various Decoupling (RF short) Decoupling (RF short). Also has some influence on stability (using less than 8.2 pF causes output of amplifier to “see” more loss from R1 at lower frequencies → stability improvement). C5 4.7 pF 0402 Various C6 0.1 μF 0402 L1 3.3 nH 0402 L2 2.7 nH 0402 R1 10 Ω 0402 Various Murata wirewound LQW15A series Murata wirewound LQW15A series Various R2 51 kΩ 0402 Various Bring bias current / voltage into base of transistor Various Provides some negative feedback for DC bias / DC operating point to compensate for variations in transistor DC current gain, temperature variations, etc. R3 68 M1 Width=0.2mm Length=0.9mm Q1 BFP640ESD Ω Application Note AN218, Rev. 1.0 0402 Decoupling, low frequency RF choke + impedance match at input RF choke + impedance match at output Stability improvement 2x Inductive emitter degeneration. Stability, RF matching and IP3 improvement SOT343 Infineon Technologies 7 / 21 BFP640ESD ESD-Hardened SiGe Ultra Low Noise RF Transistor 2010-06-30 BFP640ESD LNA for 2.5 - 2.7 GHz WLAN & WiMAX Typical Measurement Results 3 Typical Measurement Results Table 2 shows the measurement results of the BFP640ESD. The BFP640ESD solution provides a Gain of 16.5dB for a noise figure of 0.83dB (including SMA and PCB lossed of 0.1dB). And the input/output matching reaches a minimum value of 12.9dB (please see Table 2). At the frequency of 2500MHz, using two tones separated of 1MHz, the input third-order intercept point reaches +9.3 dBm. Besides we obtain an input 1dB-compression point of 11.6 dBm. Table 2 Electrical Characteristics (T = 25 °C) Network analyzer source power = -25 dBm Parameter Symbol Value Unit Frequency Range Freq 2.5 GHz DC Voltage Vcc 3.0 V DC Current Icc 7.3 mA Gain G 16.5 dB Noise Figure NF 0.83 dB Input Return Loss RLin -12.9 dB Output Return Loss RLout -18.1 dB Reverse Isolation IRev -22.2 dB Input P1dB IP1dB -11.6 dBm Output P1dB OP1dB +3.9 dBm Input IP3 IIP3 +9.3 dBm Output IP3 OIP3 +25.8 dBm Stability k >1 -- Application Note AN218, Rev. 1.0 8 / 21 Comment/Test Condition WLAN & WiMAX Including SMA connectors and PCB losses of 0.1dB f1 = 2500 MHz, f2 = 2501 MHz, -25 dBm each tone. Stability measured from 10 MHz to 6 GHz 2010-06-30 BFP640ESD LNA for 2.5 - 2.7 GHz WLAN & WiMAX Measured Graphs 4 Measured Graphs Insertion Power Gain Inband 30 2700 MHz 15.7 dB 2297 MHz 16.5 dB 20 10 2500 MHz 16.5 dB 0 -10 -20 -30 -40 -50 -60 -70 0 Figure 3 1000 2000 3000 Frequency (MHz) 4000 5000 6000 Power Gain of the BFP640ESD for 2.5GHz WLAN & WiMAX Application Application Note AN218, Rev. 1.0 9 / 21 2010-06-30 BFP640ESD LNA for 2.5 - 2.7 GHz WLAN & WiMAX Measured Graphs Figure 4 Table 3 Noise Figure of the BFP640ESD for 2.5GHz WLAN & WiMAX Application Noise Figure Frequency 2300 MHz 2350 MHz 2400 MHz 2450 MHz 2500 MHz 2550 MHz 2600 MHz 2650 MHz 2700 MHz Application Note AN218, Rev. 1.0 Noise Figure 0.92 dB 0.85 dB 0.85 dB 0.82 dB 0.83 dB 0.90 dB 0.87 dB 0.89 dB 0.92 dB 10 / 21 2010-06-30 BFP640ESD LNA for 2.5 - 2.7 GHz WLAN & WiMAX Measured Graphs Input Matching 20 10 2500 MHz -12.9 dB 0 -10 -20 2304 MHz -13.2 dB -30 2700 MHz -13.7 dB -40 -50 -60 -70 -80 0 Figure 5 1000 2000 3000 Frequency (MHz) 4000 5000 6000 Input Matching of the BFP640ESD for 2.5GHz WLAN & WiMAX Application Application Note AN218, Rev. 1.0 11 / 21 2010-06-30 BFP640ESD LNA for 2.5 - 2.7 GHz WLAN & WiMAX Measured Graphs Output Matching 20 10 2500 MHz -18.1 dB 0 -10 -20 2302 MHz -17.4 dB -30 2700 MHz -11.1 dB -40 -50 -60 -70 -80 0 Figure 6 1000 2000 3000 Frequency (MHz) 4000 5000 6000 Output Matching of the BFP640ESD for 2.5GHz WLAN & WiMAX Application Application Note AN218, Rev. 1.0 12 / 21 2010-06-30 BFP640ESD LNA for 2.5 - 2.7 GHz WLAN & WiMAX Measured Graphs Power Sweep at 2500 MHz (CW) Source Power (Input) Swept from -30 to -5 dBm Input P1dB = - 11.62 dBm Figure 7 Compression Point at 1dB of the BFP640ESD for 2.5GHz WLAN & WiMAX Application Application Note AN218, Rev. 1.0 13 / 21 2010-06-30 BFP640ESD LNA for 2.5 - 2.7 GHz WLAN & WiMAX Measured Graphs Reverse Isolation 20 10 0 -10 2496 MHz -22.2 dB -20 -30 -40 -50 -60 -70 -80 0 Figure 8 1000 2000 3000 Frequency (MHz) 4000 5000 6000 Reverse Isolation of the BFP640ESD for 2.5GHz WLAN & WiMAX Application Application Note AN218, Rev. 1.0 14 / 21 2010-06-30 BFP640ESD LNA for 2.5 - 2.7 GHz WLAN & WiMAX Measured Graphs Stability Factor K Stability Factor K is defined as follows: K = 1 - |S11|2 - |S22|2 + |D|2 2|S12S21| |D| = |S11S22 - S12S21| The necessary and sufficient condition for Unconditional Stability is K > 1.0. In the plot, K > 1.0 over 10 MHz – 6 GHz ; amplifier is unconditionally stable over 10 MHz – 6 GHz frequency range. Stablity K 5 4 3 6000 MHz 1.042 2 1 0 0 Figure 9 1000 2000 3000 Frequency (MHz) 4000 5000 6000 K Factor Stability of the BFP640ESD for 2.5GHz WLAN & WiMAX Application Application Note AN218, Rev. 1.0 15 / 21 2010-06-30 BFP640ESD LNA for 2.5 - 2.7 GHz WLAN & WiMAX Measured Graphs Two-Tone Test, 2500 MHz Input Stimulus for Amplifier Two-Tone Test. f1 = 2500 MHz, f2 = 2501 MHz, -25 dBm each tone. Input IP3 = -25 + (68.73 / 2) = + 9.36 dBm Output IP3 = +9.36 + 16.5 = + 25.86 dBm Figure 10 3rd Order Intercept Point of the BFP640ESD for 2.5GHz WLAN & WiMAX Application Application Note AN218, Rev. 1.0 16 / 21 2010-06-30 BFP640ESD LNA for 2.5 - 2.7 GHz WLAN & WiMAX Measured Graphs Reference Plane = Input and Output SMA Connector on PC Board Z PArameter Input Output Matching 2. 0 6 0. 0. 8 1.0 Swp Max 2700MHz 0 3. 2500 MHz r 35.9602 Ohm x 13.7614 Ohm 0 4. 5. 0 0. 4 10dB Return Loss Circle 0. 2 10 .0 10.0 5.0 4.0 3.0 2.0 1.0 0.8 0.6 0.4 0 0.2 S(1,1) S(2,2) -1 0. 0 Figure 11 .0 -2 -1.0 -0 .8 -0 .6 .4 -0 -3 .0 2500 MHz r 38.9306 Ohm x -0.638895 Ohm -4 .0 -5 . 0 2 -0 . Swp Min 2300MHz Input and Output Matching Z-Parameter of the BFP640ESD for 2.5GHz WLAN & WiMAX Application Application Note AN218, Rev. 1.0 17 / 21 2010-06-30 BFP640ESD LNA for 2.5 - 2.7 GHz WLAN & WiMAX Evaluation Board Information 5 Evaluation Board Information Figure 12 Photo Picture of Evaluation Board Figure 13 PCB Layer Information Application Note AN218, Rev. 1.0 18 / 21 2010-06-30 BFP640ESD LNA for 2.5 - 2.7 GHz WLAN & WiMAX ESD Protection 6 ESD Protection Electrostatic discharge (ESD) plays an important role when ESD sensitive devices are connected to exposed interfaces or antennas that can be touched by humans. This is usually applicable to low noise amplifiers (LNAs) and therefore LNAs must be properly protected against ESD in order to avoid irreversible damage of the LNA. For mobile applications low voltage supply and low current consumption is a major issue that requires new technologies with smaller transistor structures. However, the smaller the transistor structure the more sensitive the transistor is to ESD events. Therefore, RF-LNAs based on new front-end technologies have already ESD protection elements integrated onchip, e.g. BFP740FESD, BFP640FESD, BFP540FESD. These on-chip ESD protection techniques are always a compromise between good ESD protection and RF performance. Integrated RF ESD concepts hardly ever achieve an ESD protection above 2 kV according HBM. An on-chip ESD protection of ±1 kV HBM (component level ESD test JEDEC JESD 22A115) is quite sufficient to protect the chip from ESD events in the manufacturing environment where stringent measures are taken to prevent electrostatic buildup. However in the field, exposed antennas, for example, always require higher ESD protection levels of at least ±8kV up to ±15kV. Additional the more stringent system level test according to IEC61000-4-2 is applied. Therefore an special ESD protection becomes mandatory to handle the majority of the ESD current. An ESD protection based on silicon TVS diodes fits perfect to keep the residual ESD stress for the subsequent device as small as possible. For high frequency applications (2.4GHz and 5GHz WLAN) ESD protection diodes with ultra low line capacitances are required. Infineon offers ultra low clamping voltage and ultra low capacitance, 0.2pF line capacitance, ESD protection diodes in leadless packages of EIA case 0402 (TSLP-2-17) as well as 0201 (TSSLP-2-1): ESD0P2RF-02LRH / -02LS The Infineon TVS diode ESD0P2RF has a line capacitance of only 0.2 pF and comes in either a TSLP-2-17 package (1 mm x 0.6 mm x 0.39 mm) or a super small TSSLP-2-1 package (0.62 mm x 0.32 mm x 0.31 mm). The ESD0P2 ESD diode is a bidirectional TVS diode with a maximum working voltage of ±5.3V. It is capable of handling TX power levels of up to +20dBm without influencing the signal integrity, EVM and harmonic generation. Therefore it is well suited for WLAN 2.4GHz and for a lot of 5GHz applications as well. Application Note AN218, Rev. 1.0 19 / 21 2010-06-30 BFP640ESD LNA for 2.5 - 2.7 GHz WLAN & WiMAX Authors Authors Song Kyung-Min, Senior Application Engineer of Business Unit “RF and Protection Devices” Lee Seok-Soo, Staff Engineer of Business Unit “RF and Protection Devices” Application Note AN218, Rev. 1.0 20 / 21 2010-06-30 w w w . i n f i n e o n . c o m Published by Infineon Technologies AG AN218