A 15.5-dBm 160-GHz High-Gain Power Amplifier in SiGe BiCMOS Technology

This letter presents the design of a 160 GHz cascode based differential power amplifier (PA) realized in a 130 nm SiGe BiCMOS technology. It consists of 4 driving stages and an output power stage, providing a peak differential gain of 30 dB and a 3-dB small-signal bandwidth of around 50 GHz. Gain is...

Full description

Saved in:
Bibliographic Details
Published in:IEEE microwave and wireless components letters 2017-02, Vol.27 (2), p.177-179
Main Authors: Furqan, Muhammad, Ahmed, Faisal, Heinemann, Bernd, Stelzer, Andreas
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Amplification
Bandwidth
Broadband
Frequency measurement
Gain
High gain
millimeter-wave circuits
Positive feedback
power amplifier
Power amplifiers
Power generation
Semiconductor device measurement
SiGe BiCMOS
Silicon germanides
Silicon germanium
Citations: Items that this one cites
Items that cite this one
Online Access:Get full text
Tags: Add Tag
No Tags, Be the first to tag this record!
Description
Summary:This letter presents the design of a 160 GHz cascode based differential power amplifier (PA) realized in a 130 nm SiGe BiCMOS technology. It consists of 4 driving stages and an output power stage, providing a peak differential gain of 30 dB and a 3-dB small-signal bandwidth of around 50 GHz. Gain is enhanced by means of inductive positive feedback in the commonbase stage. By using optimally sized HBTs in the power stage and operating in the weak avalanche region, high output power is achieved. The designed PA achieves a peak differential Psat of 15.5 dBm at 160 GHz and a PAE of 7.2%, which is to-date the highest reported output power for PAs above 150 GHz, in Si-based technologies.
ISSN:1531-1309
2771-957X
1558-1764
2771-9588
DOI:10.1109/LMWC.2016.2646910