Design and Optimization of a High Efficiency 60 GHz SiGe-HBT Power Amplifier

Author

Do, Van-Hoang ; Subramanian, Viswanathan ; Keusgen, Wilhelm ; Boeck, Georg

Author_Institution

TES Electron. Solutions GmbH, Berlin

fYear

2007

fDate

9-11 Dec. 2007

Firstpage

150

Lastpage

153

Abstract

This work presents the design and optimization strategies of a 60 GHz monolithic power amplifier. The circuit has been implemented utilizing an advanced 0.25 mum SiGe-HBT technology, featuring npn transistors with f_tau and f_max = 200 GHz. The technique used to achieve a minimum difference between the output power under 1 dB compression and saturated output power is explained. Following this, the analysis of supply voltage and bias current optimization is presented along with the simulation results. The developed two cascode power amplifiers show a measured small signal gain of 18.8 dB and an output power of 14.5 dBm under 1 dB gain compression at 61 GHz. At this frequency, the saturated output power is 15.5 dBm and the peak power added efficiency is 19.7 %. The power amplifier presented here has the highest power added efficiency so far, compared to all SiGe-HBT based power amplifiers in the 60 GHz frequency range.

Keywords

Ge-Si alloys; bipolar MIMIC; cascade networks; circuit optimisation; millimetre wave power amplifiers; HBT power amplifier; HBT technology; SiGe; bias current optimization; cascode power amplifiers; efficiency 19.7 percent; frequency 60 GHz; gain 18.8 dB; monolithic power amplifier; optimization strategies; power added efficiency; size 0.25 mum; supply voltage analysis; Analytical models; Circuits; Design optimization; Frequency; Gain; High power amplifiers; Power amplifiers; Power generation; Transistors; Voltage; 60 GHz; SiGe-HBT technology; optimization; power added efficiency; power amplifier (PA); saturated power;

fLanguage

English

Publisher

ieee

Conference_Titel

Radio-Frequency Integration Technology, 2007. RFIT 007. IEEE International Workshop on

Conference_Location

Rasa Sentosa Resort

Print_ISBN

978-1-4244-1307-2

Electronic_ISBN

978-1-4244-1308-9

Type

conf

DOI

10.1109/RFIT.2007.4443939

Filename

4443939