Electronic – MMIC RF Amplifier BGA2817 vs. Discrete Transistor/s Amplifier

amplifierintegrated-circuitlow-noise-amplifierRF

I've been working on learning transistor 101s, for a 900MHz transmitter.

I'm to the point, I can work the basic algebra, and intuitively understand changing the passive components in the transistor circuit to boost an RF signal.

I came across a wide bandwidth RF amplifer from NXP, the BGA2817.

Here is the BGA2817 Datasheet.

At a cost of $0.08/USD at volume, what is the downsides to using BGA2817 as an amplifier, versus going through all the development and trial and error of building up some transistor stages and amplifying your signal for a transmitter?

The one thing that sticks out to me is the 20mA supply current. Not really a deal breaker for a transmitter, but clearly a deal breaker for a receiver.

Are people moving over to this type of IC for RF amplification?

Why does this thing draw 20mA in the first place, when you get down to how this IC is built. I have no idea.

It doesn't get any easier to implement one of these, all the voltage step-up, impedance matching, and whatnot is just baked into the IC.

Best Answer

For small low power amplifiers, this is by far the easiest way to do the job.

The 20mA bias current is 'paying for' the P1dB output power of 6dBm and the distortion performance output TOIP of 18dBm. If you don't need these values, then you can save power by going through the catalogues (NXP aren't the only people making these things) and tabulating power consumption versus output specs. You might find examples with better ratios, you will find examples with lower power.

Have a look at minicircuits, avago, rfmicrodevices, for monlithic broadband amplifiers.