Abstract
A power amplifier (PA) is designed for a surface-to-orbit proximity link microtransceiver on Mars exploration rovers, aerobots, and small networked landers and works in conjunction with a 0.2-dB loss transmit/receive switch to allow nearly the full 1 W to reach the antenna. The fully integrated UHF CMOS PA with more than 30-dBm output is reported for the first time. A differential pMOS structure with floating-bias cascode transistors and 1:3-turn ratio output transformer are chosen to overcome low breakdown voltage ( <i xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">V</i> <sub xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">bk</sub> ) of CMOS and chip area consumption issues at UHF frequencies. The high-Q on-chip transformer on a sapphire substrate enables the differential PA to drive a single-ended antenna effectively at 400 MHz. The PA in a standard package delivers 30-dBm output with 27% power-added efficiency. No performance degradation was observed in continuous-wave operation and the design has been tested to 136% of its nominal 3.3-V supply without failure.
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