Integration of a 5-GHz radio front-end in PCB

A radio frequency (RF) front-end module at 5 GHz has been designed and implemented in a conventional printed circuit board (PCB). The module consists of two switches, two bandpass filters, a balun, a low noise amplifier and a power amplifier. Distributed components and sub-circuits based upon the transmission line theory have been utilized for the module design. All the sub-circuits and the entire module have been evaluated by both simulation and measurements. It is shown that RF modules at 5 GHz can be integrated in a PCB utilizing a conventional PCB process. This module integration technique provides not only low cost but also high performance because of the elimination of parasitics associated with lumped components in a conventional design