RapidIP — Automated design of a 220–260 GHz power amplifier in a 130 nm BiCMOS technology

Abstract

In this work, the automated design of a power amplifier circuit in a 130 nm BiCMOS technology operating in the 220 GHz to 260 GHz frequency range is presented. The design automation process is based on the RapidIP approach, which enables the evaluation, rating and optimisation of thousands of different circuit topologies within only a few minutes. In total 6.13⋅105 optimisation steps and 2.6⋅104 different circuit topologies have been explored within an overall runtime of 23 min. According to post-layout simulations, the amplifier achieves a saturated output power of 9 dBm with a peak power-added efficiency of 2.8% and a 3 dB-bandwidth of 55 GHz.