An 8?12G PA driver amplifier using 0.18 ?m BiCMOS technology with 19.4dBm outputpower

This paper presents a driver amplifier for PA across 8G-12GHz. In order to obtain high output power, the work uses a large number of SiGe bipolar transistors and selects a higher DC current. Cascaded LC matching networks have been added at both input and output terminals to achieve desirable matching performance especially between 8.5G-10.5GHz below -14dB. Since schematics flow high current, the drive capability of biases should be also taken into account. In this paper darlington structure is adopted to ensure normal operation condition under different corners. Modeling inductors for high current and low inductance is necessary in the design as the absence of such inductors in the technology library. The gain of the driver amplifier is about 6-8.8dB tending to arise versus frequency. The output 1-dB gain-compressed power is 19.4 dBm at 10.5 GHz. The total chip size is 1.5×1.1 mm² including all bonding pads.