A 36–41GHz power amplifier with distributed active transformer in 0.13 μm CMOS process

Abstract

A 36–41GHz fully integrated power amplifier with distributed active transformer (DAT) in 0.13 pm CMOS technology is presented in this paper. In order to improve the output power of the PA, a four-way distributed active transformer was used for power combining. The DAT combiner not only can realize efficient performance of power combination, but also directly match the PA unit. Moreover, the patterned floating shield (PFS) and patterned ground shield (PGS) are utilized to reduce the insertion loss of the DAT, on-chip balun and power splitter. PA units employ cascode stage and cascade of common source stage to improve the gain and output power. This DAT PA achieves a peak power gain of 12.5 dB with 20dBm saturated output power and a peak power added efficiency (PAE) of 10% under the supply voltage of 1.6V and current consumption of 152 mA. The entire PA core occupies 0.78 mm2 die area.