An MMIC family was demonstrated for a low noise block downconverter (LNB) for use in direct broadcast satellite (DBS) receivers operating from 11.7 to 12GHz. A 12GHz low noise amplifier (LNA), a 12GHz mixer (MIX), a 10.7GHz dielectric resonator oscillator (DRO), and a 1GHz IF amplifier (IFA) were designed with 0.5μm-gate pulse-doped GaAs MESFETs for the first time. Noise-free pictures of satellite broadcast TV could be seen by using this LNB and a parabolic antenna forty centimeters in diameter.
