Design of a K-band power amplifier for high gain, output power and efficiency on 0.18-µm SiGe BiCMOS process

The design of a K-band power amplifier (PA) on a 0.18 µm SiGe BiCMOS process for high gain, output power and power-aided efficiency (PAE) is presented. The designed PA is composed of a drive amplifier, two identical main amplifiers, and lumped-element Wilkinson power divider and combiner. The PA achieves 37.5–39.5 dB of small-signal gain, 18.6–20.6 dBm of saturated output power, and 18–29% of PAE over the entire K-band (18–26.5 GHz). Specifically at 24 GHz, it achieves 19.4 dBm output power, 22.3% PAE, and 37.6-dB gain.