Simple Universal RF Amplifier PCB Design - From Schematic to Measurements

Universal RF amplifier Design - From Schematic to Measurements

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In this video, I'm going to show you a very simple way to design a universal RF amplifier. We'll go over component selection, schematic design, pcb design / layout and measurements. We'll also look at the impact of ferrite beads versus resistors in the biasing circuit and the impact of capacitors on the analog performance.

0:00 introduction
0:14 What amplifiers are we talking about
0:47 The selected amplifiers
1:20 Application diagrams
2:00 Single stage amplifier schematics
3:42 Single stage amplifier layout
5:13 Single stage amplifier measurement options
5:54 Measurement setups
8:01 Single stage amplifier measurement results
10:05 Dual stage amplifier schematics
10:51 Dual stage amplifier layout
11:16 Dual stage amplifier measurement options
11:43 Dual stage amplifier measurement results
12:23 Bias current checks
12:54 Good bye and hope you liked it

[kensmith]

Folks using Kicad will find the calculator for trace impedance in the calculators section.
It is under high speed -> transmission lines
Coplanar wave guide with ground plane is a good topology to use.
It seems to give reasonable results
Also to protect against "ooops I connected the power backwards" you can add a diode.
If I was doing it, I would also add a little LED and resistor to indicate power is on to remind me.

[bagibadoo]

Love the straight to business videos, not bs or intro just facts

[yaidontknowwhattoput]

Thanks for the highquality content. Very well done. Designing and buying the pcbs then running the real word frequency analysis is what sets this channel apart.

[johnwuethrich]

Love digikey. They are 3 hrs away from me so with standard mail I always get the part with in 2 days. I want to get back into PCB building as a hobby. This is an awesome channel

[charlesspringer]

I used Mini0circuits back in the 1980's for a mass spectrometer. Amazing price-performance and so simple! Getting a PCB right at the time was the hard part!

[SteveWrightNZ]

That was super interesting. Thanks so much for teaching.

[PaulJBrower]

Fantastic content! Thank you for breaking down those two amplifiers and sharing your design and test measurements! Greatly appreciate you sharing it with the world!

[jesseontiveros]

thanks homie. Learned more and faster about making an RF amp than hours spent googling stuff lol

[jonhoyles]

thanks hans interesting stuff leaning more every time i watch ❤

[RichardSchulting]

Nice video Hans, thanks for sharing it. Did you have a look at the harmonics and BW distortion? I mean driving them up to their P1dB point often causes a lot of it, at least for DATV. No worries, I use them as well in my driver amplifiers ;).

[myetis]

simplicity of this design is impressive.great job thanks sir.
do we need impedance controlled traces in this design?

[MegaDeKay]

Great content on your channel! Did you try a measurement of noise figure to see how close that was to spec?

[benutzernamenichtverfugbar]

Hello, thanks for the content. I would also be interested in a guide for differential amplifiers.

[olivierconet]

Nice explanation. Thanks.
My question : With such high gain, isn't there a high risk of loopback and oscillation ?
Do you have advices about shielding / boxing this circuit ?

[shakaibsafvi]

Excellent work... keep 'em coming.
Also ... can I keep cascading to get a really high power output signal ?
and can you somehow convert the input / output measurements in Watts ? coz It makes more sense to me.

[hmaghera]

Are these PCB schematics available to download/purchase?

[DavidRobertsonUK]

MELF is a pain both for hand assembly and automated pick/place assembly. I wouldn't choose them for cost reasons alone. But sometimes they are the best choice, especially for pulse loads.

[Inigowi]

Is it microstrip, or coplanar transmission line?

[miceuz]

Thank you for informative video. I wander about your measurement setup - I assume calculations are for dual stage setup, but how do you arrive to +15dBm P1dB value? 74+ P1dB point is 18.3 dBm, are you using +15 figure just to stay below that?

Also, how amplifiers are designed in the realm of +30 - +33 dBm? I don't see much of integrated amplifiers at this power level. Is it discrete transistors only? (yes, I have my HAM licence ;)

[shamssalehin]

Yes sir, upload more n more.

I wish you can do a vedio on common mode noise, filter design n remadies.

One of my projects i have an long wire connection from a PIR sensor, for some reason the ground is affected in my PCB.

I wish you can share a guide for such RF noises being absorbed such wire and affecting the PCB