A 50 to 70 GHz Power Amplifier Using 90 nm CMOS Technology

• Published in: IEEE microwave and wireless components letters 2009-01, Vol.19 (1), p.45-47
• Main Authors: KUO, Jing-Lin, TSAI, Zuo-Min, LIN, Kun-You, WANG, Huei
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: 60 GHz; Amplifiers; Applied sciences; Bandwidth; Broadband; Broadband amplifiers; Circuit properties; CMOS; CMOS process; CMOS technology; Design. Technologies. Operation analysis. Testing; Electric, optical and optoelectronic circuits; Electronic circuits; Electronic equipment and fabrication. Passive components, printed wiring boards, connectics; Electronics; Exact sciences and technology; Gain; Gain measurement; Integrated circuits; Microwave circuits, microwave integrated circuits, microwave transmission lines, submillimeter wave circuits; microwave monolithic integrated circuit (MMIC); Microwaves; MMICs; Noise levels; power amplifier (PA); Power amplifiers; Power gain; Power measurement; Radio frequency; Radiofrequency amplifiers; Semiconductor electronics. Microelectronics. Optoelectronics. Solid state devices; V-band; Wideband
• ISSN: 1531-1309; 2771-957X; 1558-1764; 2771-9588
• DOI: 10.1109/LMWC.2008.2008603

A 50 to 70 GHz wideband power amplifier (PA) is developed in MS/RF 90 nm 1P9M CMOS process. This PA achieves a measured P sat of 13.8 dBm, P 1 dB of 10.3 dBm, power added efficiency (PAE) of 12.6%, and linear power gain of 30 dB at 60 GHz under V DD biased at 1.8 V. When V DD is biased at 3 V, it exhibits P sat of 18 dBm, P 1 dB of 12 dBm, PAE of 15%, and linear gain of 32.4 dB at 60 GHz. The MMIC PA also has a wide 3 dB bandwidth from 50 to 70 GHz, with a chip size of 0.66 times 0.5 mm 2 . To the author's knowledge, this PA demonstrates the highest output power, with the highest gain among the reported CMOS PAs in V-band.