DocumentCode :
1269038
Title :
A Wideband, Dual-Path, Millimeter-Wave Power Amplifier With 20 dBm Output Power and PAE Above 15% in 130 nm SiGe-BiCMOS
Author :
Zhao, Yi ; Long, John R.
Author_Institution :
Electron. Res. Lab./DIMES, Delft Univ. of Technol., Delft, Netherlands
Volume :
47
Issue :
9
fYear :
2012
Firstpage :
1981
Lastpage :
1997
Abstract :
A frequency-scalable, three-stage, transformer-coupled millimeter-wave power amplifier (PA) is implemented in 130 nm SiGe-BiCMOS. Differential common-base gain stages extend collector-emitter breakdown voltage beyond 3 V, while collector-emitter neutralization increases reverse isolation and stability. Monolithic self-shielded transformers designed for low insertion loss and compact dimensions on-chip include: a 2:4 input power splitter, a 4:1 output balun combiner and inter-stage coupling transformers. The balun combiner and fully-differential splitter are compensated for imbalances caused by parasitic interwinding capacitance, and simulations predict better than 3% uniformity between reflected port-to-port impedances at 60 GHz. Simulated impedance uniformity is within 6% from 55-65 GHz, and insertion loss of the 0.015 mm2 combiner prototypes at 60 GHz is below 1 dB. The 0.72 mm2 60 GHz-band PA realizes a measured peak small-signal gain higher than 20 dB with over 10 GHz 3 dB bandwidth. Reverse isolation is better than 51 dB from 50-65 GHz and the PA is unconditionally stable. It consumes 353 mW (quiescent) from a 1.8 V supply and the active area is 0.25 mm2. Maximum output power and peak power-added efficiency (PAE) are 20.1 dBm and 18% at 62 GHz, respectively. An up-banded 79-87.5 GHz PA is also implemented to verify frequency scalability of the design. The 0.23 mm2 active area 79 GHz PA prototype produces 18 dBm saturated output power and 9% peak-PAE at 84 GHz from a 2.5 V supply.
Keywords :
BiCMOS analogue integrated circuits; Ge-Si alloys; baluns; millimetre wave integrated circuits; millimetre wave power amplifiers; transformers; wideband amplifiers; BiCMOS; PA; PAE; SiGe; collector-emitter breakdown voltage; collector-emitter neutralization; compact dimensions on-chip; differential common-base gain stages; dual-path amplifier; efficiency 18 percent; efficiency 9 percent; frequency 55 GHz to 65 GHz; frequency 79 GHz to 87.5 GHz; frequency scalability; frequency-scalable amplifier; input power splitter; interstage coupling transformers; low insertion loss; monolithic self-shielded transformers; output balun combiner; parasitic interwinding capacitance; peak power-added efficiency; power 353 mW; reflected port-to-port impedances; reverse isolation; size 130 nm; transformer-coupled millimeter-wave power amplifier; voltage 1.8 V; voltage 2.5 V; wideband amplifier; Couplings; Gain; Impedance matching; Layout; Metals; Power generation; Windings; Current-summing; SiGe-BiCMOS; frequency scalability; millimeter-wave; monolithic transformer; multi-path amplifier; neutralization; parasitic compensation; power amplifier; power combiner; power splitter; self-shielding; wideband;
fLanguage :
English
Journal_Title :
Solid-State Circuits, IEEE Journal of
Publisher :
ieee
ISSN :
0018-9200
Type :
jour
DOI :
10.1109/JSSC.2012.2201275
Filename :
6276305
Link To Document :
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