
3
From the antenna, the received input is applied to FL3 and
FL6, a Toko TDF2A-2450T-10 two pole dielectric bandpass
filters, which are used to provide image rejection for the
receiver. The IF frequency is 280MHz, and low-side injection
is used, thereby placing the received image 560MHz below
the tuned channel. FL3 and FL6 also provide protection for
the RF front-end from out of band interfering signals.
The T/R switch is integrated in the HFA3925 [4] RF Power
Amplifier (RFPA). The HFA3925 RFPA operates from the
unregulated 5V PC Card supply.
Following the T/R switch, the HFA3424 [5] Low Noise
Amplifier (LNA) is used to set the receiver noise figure. The
HFA3424 LNA operates from a regulated 3.5V supply. A
logic-level PMOS switch, RF1K49093 [9], is used to control
the drain supply voltage to the HFA3424 LNA, and
implement a power down mode when transmitting.
A trade-off between noise figure and input intercept point
exists in any receiver, to balance these conflicting
requirements in the PRISM radio, an attenuator follows the
HFA3424 LNA, and it may be mounted. To improve input
intercept point, this attenuation may be increased. The
cascaded front-end noise figure, input intercept point, and
gain distribution analysis are shown in Table 1.
Next, the signal enters the HFA3624 [6] RF/IF Converter
LNA section, which aids in setting receiver NF. FL1 is used
to suppress image noise generated in both the HFA3424
LNA and the HFA3624 LNA, and is a Murata LFJ30-
03B2442B084 two pole monolithic LC bandpass filter. Only
modest attenuation at the image frequency is required. The
insertion loss is not critical, since at this point in the receiver,
component loss or NF is offset by the preceding gain stages.
All sections of the HFA3624 RF/IF Converter operate from a
regulated 3.5V supply.
Down-conversion from the 2.4GHz - 2.5GHz band is performed
in the HFA3624 RF/IF Converter mixer section. As previously
mentioned, the IF center frequency is 280MHz, and low-side
local oscillator (LO) injection is used. A discrete LC matching
network is used at the mixer output to differentially combine the
IF outputs, as well as match impedance to a 50
environment.
A trimmer capacitor is used as part of the narrow-band
matchingnetwork.Analternative,broadbandmatchingnetwork
is described in the HFA3624 RF/IF Converter application note,
anddoesnotrequireanytunableelements.A directimpedance
match to the IF filter, U7 could be implemented if desired. The
50
environment was chosen to allow ease in measurement of
portions of the radio with external test equipment. An analysis
of the mixer spurious responses is shown in Appendix B. There
are no crossing spurious responses, therefore only tuned
responses are shown.
The IF receive filter, U7, is a Toyocom TQS-432 SAW
bandpass filter. The center frequency is 280MHz, the 3dB
bandwidth is 17MHz, and the differential group delay is less
than 100ns. Insertion loss is typically 6dB, making it ideal for
single-conversion systems. The impedance of the SAW is
270
, in parallel with 5pF, and a series 33nH inductor is used
to match the filter input to 50
. The SAW output is matched
directly to the IF input of the HFA3724 Quadrature IF
Modulator/Demodulator, using a shunt 33nH inductor and
261
resistor. This presents a 250
source impedance to the
limiter input, thereby optimizing the limiter’s NF. Measured
performance of the SAW filter is shown in Appendix C.
In the receive mode, the HFA3724 Quadrature IF
Modulator/Demodulator provides two limiting amplifiers, a
quadrature baseband demodulator, and two baseband low
pass filters. All sections of the HFA3724 operate from a
regulated 3.5V supply. The first limiting amplifier establishes
the NF of the IF strip at approximately 7dB. A discrete one
pole LC differential filter is placed between the two limiters to
restrict the noise bandwidth of the first limiter. As both
limiters exhibit a broadband response, with over 400MHz
bandwidth, a noise bandwidth reduction filter is appropriate
to ensure that the second limiter is fully limiting on the front-
end noise within the signal bandwidth, as opposed to the
broadband noise generated by the first limiter. This filter has
a center frequency of 280MHz, and a 3dB bandwidth of
50MHz. It consists of a fixed 10nH inductor and a fixed 20pF
capacitor, as described in the HFA3724 data sheet.
TABLE 1. PRISM CASCADED FRONT-END ANALYSIS
STAGE
G
GC
-2.0
-4.0
-5.2
7.8
23.4
20.4
23.4
13.4
13.4
F
FC
2.0
4.0
5.2
7.2
7.4
7.4
7.5
7.5
7.7
IP30
100.0
100.0
34.0
11.1
15.0
100.0
4.0
100.0
100.0
IP30C
100.0
95.9
34.0
11.0
14.7
11.7
3.6
-6.4
-6.4
IP3IC
102.0
99.9
39.2
3.3
-8.7
-8.7
-19.8
-19.8
-19.8
FL6 RF Filter
FL3 RF Filter
HFA3925 T/R Switch
HFA3424 LNA
HFA3624 LNA
FL1 RF Filter
HFA3624 Mixer
U7 IF Filter
HFA3724 [7] IF Strip
Cascaded Gain = 13.4dB
NOTE: G (individual stage gain, dB), GC (cumulative gain, dB), F (NF, dB), FC (cumulative NF, dB), IP3O (individual stage output IP3, dBm), IP3OC
(cumulative output IP3, dBm), IP3IC (cumulative input IP3, dBm).
-2.0
-2.0
-1.2
13.0
15.6
-3.0
3.0
-10.0
0.0
2.0
2.0
1.2
2.0
3.8
3.0
12.0
10.0
7.0
Cascaded NF = 7.7dB
Cascaded Input IP3 = -19.8dBm
Application Note 9624