Directly matched active integrated antenna for GPS receiver

The design of an active integrated antenna (AIA) front-end circuit using the ATF-34143 field effect transistor (FET) in a minimum noise figure (NF) condition for GPS application is presented. Both RF and DC bias circuits are calculated for a co-designed probe fed circularly polarized rectangular microstrip antenna (CPRMA). To optimize performance a source inductance was added and tuned using a procedure that involves feedback from experimental to joint circuit/full-wave simulated results, achieving stability up to 13GHz. A prototype was implemented and tested; NF and gain measurements were performed following a detailed step-by-step process shown in this paper.