Abstract
In this paper, an area-efficient 4-stage dual-fed distributed power amplifier (DPA) implemented in a 0.35 μm Complementary Metal Oxide Semiconductor (CMOS) process is presented. To effectively reduce the area of the circuit, techniques such as using multilevel inductors and closely-placing conventional spiral inductors are employed. Additionally, a novel technique based on stacking inductors one on top of others is implemented. Based on these techniques, a 32% area reduction is achieved compared to a conventional design without a noticeable performance degradation. This reduction could be further exploited as the number of stages of the dual-fed DPA increases.
Highlights
The conventional distributed amplifier (DA) has been broadly used for wide-band small-signal applications due to its ability to combine multiple amplifying devices without compromising the gain bandwidth product [1]
Its success in power applications has been limited for several major reasons, such as the unequal distribution of output power between active devices, which results in the underutilization of some of the active devices [2,3,4] and the wasted power at the inactive output port that reduces efficiency [5,6,7]
The dual-fed configuration shown in Figure 1b benefits from the forward and reverse gains of the DA, improving both power and gain when its performance is compared to the single-fed topology
Summary
The conventional distributed amplifier (DA) has been broadly used for wide-band small-signal applications due to its ability to combine multiple amplifying devices without compromising the gain bandwidth product [1]. A variation of the DA topology, the dual-fed distributed amplifier, has been proposed in order to harness the power in the backward waves [5,6]. Some authors have proposed using composite right/left-handed (CRLH) transmission lines to operate at high frequencies [8] In this case, the frequency response changes from low-pass to pass-band, but the bandwidth is still limited by the narrowband response of the reverse path. The frequency limitation of the small-signal response in the reverse path results in a large-signal response limited in frequency This opens up the possibilities of improving one of the main drawbacks of distributed amplifiers, which is their large area consumption. The combination of these techniques has not been implemented in previous works
Sign-in/Register to view highlights & summary Sign-in/Register to access full text options 
Talk to us
Join us for a 30 min session where you can share your feedback and ask us any queries you have
Schedule a call
