A 2.4 GHz high efficiency SiGe HBT power amplifier with high-Q LTCC harmonic suppression filter

Author

Raghavan, A. ; Deukhyoun Heo ; Moonkyun Maeng ; Sutono, A. ; Kyutae Lim ; Laskar, J.

Author_Institution

Sch. of Electr. & Comput. Eng., Georgia Inst. of Technol., Atlanta, GA, USA

Volume

2

fYear

2002

fDate

2-7 June 2002

Firstpage

1019

Abstract

We present a 2.4 GHz SiGe HBT power amplifier integrated with a harmonic suppression filter implemented in a high-Q multilayer low-temperature cofired ceramic (LTCC) substrate at the output. The power amplifier delivers a power of up to 27.5 dBm with a maximum power-added efficiency (PAE) of 47%. It has a power output of 27 dBm at an input power of 0 dBm with a PAE of 45%. The second and third harmonics are -44 dBc and -49 dBc, respectively, at this operating point. The power amplifier exhibits a linear gain of 35 dB and operates at a supply voltage of 3.3 V. To the best of our knowledge, this represents the best reported performance of a SiGe HBT power amplifier at 2.4 GHz and is comparable to performance previously achieved only with GaAs-based processes. The harmonic suppression filter and output match network have been implemented completely in LTCC without the use of external discrete components.

Keywords

Ge-Si alloys; UHF integrated circuits; UHF power amplifiers; bipolar analogue integrated circuits; harmonics suppression; integrated circuit design; passive filters; semiconductor materials; 2.4 GHz; 3.3 V; 35 dB; 47 percent; SiGe; SiGe HBT power amplifier; high-Q LTCC harmonic suppression filter; high-Q multilayer low-temperature cofired ceramic substrate; linear gain; maximum power-added efficiency; output match network; power output; second harmonics; supply voltage; third harmonics; Ceramics; Gain; Germanium silicon alloys; Harmonics suppression; Heterojunction bipolar transistors; High power amplifiers; Nonhomogeneous media; Power amplifiers; Power harmonic filters; Silicon germanium;

fLanguage

English

Publisher

ieee

Conference_Titel

Microwave Symposium Digest, 2002 IEEE MTT-S International

Conference_Location

Seattle, WA, USA

ISSN

0149-645X

Print_ISBN

0-7803-7239-5

Type

conf

DOI

10.1109/MWSYM.2002.1011804

Filename

1011804