Design methodology and characterization of a SiGe BiCMOS power amplifier for 60 GHz wireless communications

Author

Hellfeld, Marcus ; Hauptmann, Stefan ; Carta, Corrado ; Ellinger, Frank

Author_Institution

Dept. of Circuit Design & Network Theor., Tech. Univ. of Dresden, Dresden, Germany

fYear

2011

fDate

Oct. 29 2011-Nov. 1 2011

Firstpage

352

Lastpage

356

Abstract

This paper presents design methodology and characterization of a 60 GHz class-A power amplifier and reviews in detail its design procedure, which requires only DC and small-signal models of the active devices. Different basic amplifier topologies are compared in order to select the best suited for a given technology. The design method is applied to a 60 GHz cascode power amplifier in a 0.25 μm SiGe BiCMOS technology working with a 3.0 V supply. Measurements show a power added efficiency of 22 % and an output power of 14.7 dBm. The compact single-stage amplifier has been implemented on an overall chip area of 0.34 mm².

Keywords

BiCMOS integrated circuits; bipolar MIMIC; equivalent circuits; field effect MIMIC; millimetre wave power amplifiers; network topology; BiCMOS power amplifier; BiCMOS technology; DC model; SiGe; amplifier topology; cascode power amplifier; class A power amplifier; compact single stage amplifier; frequency 60 GHz; size 0.25 mum; small signal model; voltage 3 V; wireless communications; Impedance; Power generation; Power transmission lines; Silicon germanium; Solid modeling; Topology; Transmission line measurements; 60 GHz; BiCMOS; Power amplifier (PA); millimeter wave; silicon germanium (SiGe); wireless communication;

fLanguage

English

Publisher

ieee

Conference_Titel

Microwave & Optoelectronics Conference (IMOC), 2011 SBMO/IEEE MTT-S International

Conference_Location

Natal

ISSN

Pending

Print_ISBN

978-1-4577-1662-1

Type

conf

DOI

10.1109/IMOC.2011.6169276

Filename

6169276