Design of a high gain power amplifier for 77 GHz radar automotive applications in 65-nm CMOS

A 77 GHz power amplifier (PA) fabricated in a standard CMOS 65-nm process for radar automotive applications is presented. Based on passive transformer-coupled architectures, a high gain PA has been developed for a 76-77 GHz frequency range. The proposed PA achieves a 18.5 dB gain with output compression point (OP1dB) of +9.5 dBm and a saturated output power of +10.5 dBm for a 1.2 V supply. The isolation between input and output ports is better than 42 dB, and peak power added efficiency (PAE) is 7.1 %. Return losses at the input and output ports are less than -10 dB across the 67-100 GHz band. The PA has a compact size of 0.4 × 0.85 mm².