Title :
A 1.8-GHz CMOS Power Amplifier Using Stacked nMOS and pMOS Structures for High-Voltage Operation
Author :
Son, Yong ; Park, Changkun ; Hong, Songcheol
Author_Institution :
Sch. of Electr. Eng. & Comput. Sci., Korea Adv. Inst. of Sci. & Technol. (KAIST), Daejeon, South Korea
Abstract :
A class-E power amplifier is proposed in this study. It uses both nMOS and pMOS as switching devices to reduce the voltage stress of each transistor. A voltage-combining scheme with nMOS and pMOS is proposed, and a transformer is designed using this scheme. The power amplifier is implemented in a 0.18-mum RF CMOS process. Measurements show a maximum output power of 30.2 dBm with 36.8% power-added efficiency at a 3.3-V supply voltage. The power amplifier sustains a supply voltage of up to 3.9 V.
Keywords :
CMOS integrated circuits; microwave power amplifiers; radiofrequency integrated circuits; CMOS power amplifier; frequency 1.8 GHz; high-voltage operation; pMOS structure; stacked nMOS structure; switching devices; voltage 3.3 V; voltage 3.9 V; voltage stress; CMOS; Cascode amplifiers; differential; power amplifiers; transformers;
Journal_Title :
Microwave Theory and Techniques, IEEE Transactions on
DOI :
10.1109/TMTT.2009.2031936
