Study on Integrated Front-End Receiver Structure for Improving G/T Performance of Satellite Payload

Eun-Taek Sung*, Sanguk Lee, Yoola Hwang

In satellite payloads, particularly those supporting navigation augmentation or navigation-related relay services, minimizing front-end loss and maintaining low-noise performance are critical for reliable uplink signal reception. In conventional receiver front-end, a high-selectivity input filter is placed between the antenna and the low-noise amplifier (LNA), and its insertion loss together with interconnect and cable loss degrades receiver noise performance. This front-end loss increases the effective noise temperature and consequently degrades G/T performance. This paper proposes an integrated narrowband front-end receiver structure for a satellite payload, in which part of the input selectivity is incorporated into the LNA input matching network rather than relying on a fully separated antenna-filter-LNA configuration. The proposed structure reduces the physical distance between the antenna and the LNA, thereby lowering front-end loss and improving noise figure and G/T performance. A system-level comparison between the conventional and proposed structures is presented, and the trade-offs among input loss, noise figure, band-selective characteristics, and interference rejection are discussed. Keywords: Rx front-end, LNA, satellite payload, G/T

Speaker 성은택* 한국전자통신연구원