An E-Band Power Amplifier With Broadband Parallel-Series Power Combiner in 40-nm CMOS

Abstract

This paper describes a fully integrated E-band power amplifier (PA) in 40-nm CMOS. The design and layout of the unit PA stage is optimized to achieve high output power while maintaining high power gain. A broadband parallel-series power combiner is proposed to provide the PA stage optimum load impedance across the complete E-band. The complete PA achieves a measured saturated output power of 20.9 dBm with more than 15-GHz small-signal $-$ 3-dB bandwidth and 22% power-added efficiency (PAE) at 0.9-V supply. The in-band variation of $-$ 1-dB compressed power $(P_{1 {\rm {dB}}})$ is only $\pm$ 0.25 dB. This is the first reported silicon-based PA that covers both 71–76- and 81–86-GHz bands with uniform gain, output power, and PAE.