An 18.7 – 42.0 GHz Broadband Adaptively Biased Power Amplifier in 22-nm CMOS FD-SOI

Abstract

The design of a broadband millimeter-wave (mm-Wave) power amplifier (PA) that utilizes an adaptive biasing network to improve its power-added-efficiency (PAE) in power backoff is discussed. This design is implemented in a 22-nm CMOS fully depleted silicon-on-insulator (FD-SOI) technology, and it aims to cover the key fifth-generation (5G) FR2 band (e.g., from 24.25 GHz to 43.5 GHz). This PA has 3-dB bandwidth (BW) extending from 18.8 &#x2013; 41.9 GHz, and is able to achieve enhanced output 1-dB compression point (OP<inf>1dB</inf>) and PAE@P<inf>1dB</inf> because of its adaptive biasing network. Measurements taken on this PA at 24/28/37/39 GHz have reached max. PAE of 23.7/15/9.5/6.8%, and saturated output power (P<inf>OUT,sat</inf>) of 15.7/14.2/12.5/11.2 dBm, with OP<inf>1dB</inf> of 13.6/12.2/11.8/10.6 dBm, and PAE@P<inf>1dB</inf> of 22/14.1/9.3/6.6%. These measurement results are compared with post-layout parasitic-extraction (PEX) simulations, and also against other novel silicon mm-Wave PAs in literature.