Study of electrical and radio frequency properties of structures (IIIA-N) for filter applications for GNSS receivers

Abstract

Satellite positioning and navigation systems (GNSS) are among the fastest-growing technologies of the 21st century. They face new challenges such as improving receiver sensitivity, acquiring precise positions, reducing production costs, and lowering energy consumption. To meet these challenges, current research is focusing on the use of high-quality high-frequency devices. Unfortunately, interference in GNSS receivers can arise either from the mixing of spurious harmonics from adjacent transmitters or from intentional interference. Consequently, in most GNSS receivers, the application of filtering is essential and must be applied to the RF input. The study in question is based on the design of an RF filtering block for the GNSS receiver, consisting of two bandpass filters (BPFs) and a low-noise amplifier (LNA). The basic element of the low-noise amplifier is the transistor, which largely determines the performance of the final block. To meet current and future challenges, a substitute for the silicon-based transistor is being considered. To date, transistors based on compounds in class IIIA-N of the Mendeleyev table have been presented as the most promising for radio frequency applications, thanks to their exceptional physical and electrical characteristics. Different AlGaN/GaN MOSHEMT (Metal-Oxide-Semiconductor High Electron Mobility Transistor) structures were investigated in this thesis using the TCAD SILVACO software, and finally, the AlGaN/AlInGaN/GaN MOSHEMT on 4H-SiC substrate was chosen for implementation in the single-stage LNA circuit. To this end, we are interested in the design of two filtering block (BPF + LNA + BPF), which operate in the two spectral bands used by the GNSS system: [1190 MHz -1300 MHz] and [1550 MHz -1610 MHz] using the ADS simulator. The first frequency band corresponds to the L2-GPS and L2-GLONASS signals. The second corresponds to the L1-GPS, B1-COMPASS and E1-GALILEO signals