Fully integrated distributed power amplifier in CMOS technology, optimized for UWB transmitters

A power amplifier (PA) using the distributed amplifier technique for the ultra wideband (UWB) standard is presented. The amplifier is fabricated in a standard 0.13 μm CMOS technology and comes with on-chip biasing circuitry and a non-distributed input stage. Measurement results are given for a chip-on-board module to take any influence of product assembly into account. It achieves a transmission coefficient S₂₁ = 17 dB, a corner frequency of f_c = 8 GHz and a 1 dB compression point of A_1dB = 3.5 dBm. The output impedance is matched to 50 Ω so that external matching circuitry can be omitted. With these features, it is customized to be integrated with other building blocks to a fully integrated CMOS UWB transmitter product.