Amplifiers in RF Transceiver for Wireless Communication

Abstract

Wireless communication entails transmission and reception of data with air and surrounding environment as a communication channel. The channel, in this case the surrounding environment, therefore, dictates the quality of wireless communication. Wireless communication uses radio frequency (RF) as carrier frequency for data transmission and reception. The channel for RF communication (surrounding environment) is lossy, and thus, it is necessary to boost or amplify the signal levels during both transmission and reception. In the transmitter, the power amplifier (PA) is used to boost the signal power levels, and at the receiver, the low noise amplifier (LNA) is used to amplify the weak RF signals. The power amplifier and the low noise amplifier, consequently, dictate the quality of wireless or RF communication and therefore are critical in RF transceiver design.