A -Band Power Amplifier With Four-Way Combining in 0.13-μm SiGe

• Published in: IEEE microwave and wireless components letters Vol. 32; no. 11; pp. 1343 - 1346
• Main Authors: Aksoyak, Ibrahim Kagan, Mock, Matthias, Kaynak, Mehmet, Ulusoy, Ahmet Cagri
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: IEEE 01.11.2022
• Subjects: D-band; efficiency; Impedance; Loss measurement; millimeter-wave (mm-wave); Performance evaluation; power amplifiers (PAs); Power generation; power-combining; SiGe; Silicon; Silicon germanium; Wireless communication
• ISSN: 1531-1309; 1558-1764
• DOI: 10.1109/LMWC.2022.3178933

This letter presents a four-way power combined <inline-formula> <tex-math notation="LaTeX">D </tex-math></inline-formula>-band power amplifier (PA) in 0.13-<inline-formula> <tex-math notation="LaTeX">\mu \text{m} </tex-math></inline-formula> SiGe technology. The conventional cascode topology is modified by adding an additional interstage network between the common-emitter (CE) and common-base (CB) devices. Further techniques, such as power combining and adaptive bias circuits, are implemented to boost the power generation and the efficiency of the amplifier. The realized PA exhibits a saturated output power of 19.6 dBm with a maximum power-added-efficiency (PAE) of 9.5% at 130 GHz, which is a leading-edge performance among the reported silicon (Si) <inline-formula> <tex-math notation="LaTeX">D </tex-math></inline-formula>-band PAs in similar technologies. The small-signal gain peaks at 16 dB and the PA has a 3-dB bandwidth of 18 GHz.