A Nested-Reactance Feedback Power Amplifier for $Q$-Band Applications

Kalantari, Nader; Buckwalter, James F.

doi:10.1109/tmtt.2012.2190751

Cited by 8 publications

(1 citation statement)

References 13 publications

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“…This is 2.6 times more output power than a recently reported millimeter-Wave (mm-Wave) silicon-based PA [1]. The circuit is a fully integrated mm-Wave PA achieving a leading output power approaching 1 Watt in a silicon process.To date only a few published mm-Wave PAs in silicon have achieved a saturated output power of more than 20dBm (100mW) [2][3][4][5][6]. The difficulty in achieving high output powers at mm-Wave frequencies lies in the limited output power of a single PA, which is constrained by maximum current density, breakdown voltage and parasitics of the technology.…”

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A 0.7W fully integrated 42GHz power amplifier with 10% PAE in 0.13µm SiGe BiCMOS

Tai

Carley

Ricketts

2013

2013 IEEE International Solid-State Circuits Conference Digest of Technical Papers

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In this paper, we report a fully integrated power amplifier (PA) architecture that combines the power of 16 on-chip PAs using a 16-way zero-degree combiner to achieve an output power of 0.7W with a power-added efficiency (PAE) of 10% at 42GHz and a -3dB bandwidth of 9GHz. This is 2.6 times more output power than a recently reported millimeter-Wave (mm-Wave) silicon-based PA [1]. The circuit is a fully integrated mm-Wave PA achieving a leading output power approaching 1 Watt in a silicon process.To date only a few published mm-Wave PAs in silicon have achieved a saturated output power of more than 20dBm (100mW) [2][3][4][5][6]. The difficulty in achieving high output powers at mm-Wave frequencies lies in the limited output power of a single PA, which is constrained by maximum current density, breakdown voltage and parasitics of the technology. Moreover, to obtain maximum power from a single PA, its output impedance must be lowered due to the relative low breakdown voltage of silicon devices. In fully integrated designs, this low impedance must then be impedance transformed to the desired output impedance through a lossy on-chip impedance transformer, reducing the overall net output power.Power combining multiple PAs is a common approach to obtaining larger output powers. As more unit PAs are combined, the required impedance transformation ratio as well as voltage and thermal stress on each unit PA is relaxed. However, the insertion loss of traditional power combiners, e.g. Wilkinson combiners [3] and transformer-based combiners [4,5], tends to scale up as the number of combined PAs increases due to increased size and complexity of the combiners. Part of the additional size and complexity stems from maintaining portto-port isolation in the combiner, particularly with Wilkinson combiners. If we assume, however, that all combiner inputs have zero-degree phase difference (i.e. in-phase), port isolation is no longer a major constraint. In this case, the requirement for exact quarter-wavelength segments in the Wilkinson combiner is removed and arbitrary line lengths can be used subject only to layout constraints and impedance transformation requirements. It is then possible to significantly reduce the combiner size and insertion loss while simultaneously achieving the desired impedance transformation. In this work, we combine the power of 16 PAs using a 16-way zero-degree combiner that achieves low insertion loss and wideband impedance transformation.The combiner is developed using scalable SPICE transmission line models derived from EM field simulations. The simulated insertion loss of the combiner is less than 0.5dB at 45GHz. It also performs the required impedance transformation and presents the optimum load impedance to each unit PA, whose value was obtained from load-pull simulations of the unit PA output stage. Since a dedicated impedance transformation network is no longer needed, the associated power loss is avoided. We improve the isolation between input ports to better than 10dB by inserting a small resistor b...

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A 0.7W fully integrated 42GHz power amplifier with 10% PAE in 0.13µm SiGe BiCMOS

Tai

Carley

Ricketts

2013

2013 IEEE International Solid-State Circuits Conference Digest of Technical Papers

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A Ka-band SiGe BICMOS power amplifier with 24 dBm output power

Pierco

Torfs

Keulenaer

et al. 2015

Microw. Opt. Technol. Lett.

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A power amplifier (PA) with a saturated output power of 24.1 dBm at 32 GHz, fabricated in a 250 nm SiGe BiCMOS technology, is presented. This PA operates in Class AB and achieves a power-added efficiency (PAE) of 7.2% with a gain of approximately 25 dB and a die area of 1.70 mm 2 . A differential cascode output stage with a selfshielded balun is used, allowing to maximize the output voltage swing. The driver stage consists of translinear loops to bias and linearize the output stage while a transformer-type power combiner is implemented to achieve broadband on-chip power combination. V C 2015 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Microwave Opt Technol Lett 57:718-722, 2015; View this article online at wileyonlinelibrary.com.

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Gigahertz and terahertz transistors for 5G, 6G, and beyond mobile communication systems

Liou,

Ziegler,

Schwierz

2024

Applied Physics Reviews

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Mankind is currently living in the era of mobile communication. Mobile communication encompasses almost all areas of our daily life and is heavily used in most sectors of economy, including agriculture, healthcare, education, and so on. With mobile devices such as smart phones, people can connect to any other people somewhere on the earth, can access huge databases via the internet, stream videos and movies, to name just a few of the many mobile services that are routinely used in the early 2020s. Artificial intelligence, virtual reality, and other emerging new applications will further boost the importance of mobile communication. It is a general trend that with progressing evolution of mobile communication, the amount of data to be transmitted wirelessly increases rapidly and continuously. To enable this, a suitable well-performing hardware infrastructure is needed. The hardware used so far in the successively introduced generations of systems for mobile communication is essentially based on fast transistors. We designate these transistors as gigahertz (GHz)–terahertz (THz) transistors, as the high data rates to be transferred require an electronic hardware operating properly at frequencies in the GHz–THz range. The present paper provides a comprehensive in-depth discussion of these transistors. After a short survey of the evolution of mobile communication systems, the different categories and classes of GHz–THz transistors are introduced, relevant transistor performance measures called figures of merit are defined, issues of transistor design are dealt with, and general design rules for GHz–THz transistors are established. This is followed by a tour through the evolution of these transistors, starting in the 1950s, when the first transistors with GHz capabilities were demonstrated, up to the latest developments since the turn of the millennium and to the state-of-the-art in mid-2024. The discussion includes evolutionary advances as well as true breakthroughs, both contributing to the significant performance improvements achieved over the years. Furthermore, some research activities on GHz–THz transistors, which, unfortunately, led to a dead end as well as ongoing efforts with still unclear outcome are presented and the approaching limits of transistor performance are critically examined. Finally, we take a short view on alternative hardware options for mobile communication systems beyond the limits of transistors.

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A Nested-Reactance Feedback Power Amplifier for $Q$-Band Applications

Cited by 8 publications

References 13 publications

A 0.7W fully integrated 42GHz power amplifier with 10% PAE in 0.13µm SiGe BiCMOS

A 0.7W fully integrated 42GHz power amplifier with 10% PAE in 0.13µm SiGe BiCMOS

A Ka-band SiGe BICMOS power amplifier with 24 dBm output power

Gigahertz and terahertz transistors for 5G, 6G, and beyond mobile communication systems

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A Nested-Reactance Feedback Power Amplifier for $Q$-Band Applications

Cited by 8 publications

References 13 publications

A 0.7W fully integrated 42GHz power amplifier with 10% PAE in 0.13&#x00B5;m SiGe BiCMOS

A 0.7W fully integrated 42GHz power amplifier with 10% PAE in 0.13&#x00B5;m SiGe BiCMOS

A Ka-band SiGe BICMOS power amplifier with 24 dBm output power

Gigahertz and terahertz transistors for 5G, 6G, and beyond mobile communication systems

Contact Info

Product

Resources

About

A 0.7W fully integrated 42GHz power amplifier with 10% PAE in 0.13µm SiGe BiCMOS

A 0.7W fully integrated 42GHz power amplifier with 10% PAE in 0.13µm SiGe BiCMOS