Millimeter-wave CMOS power amplifiers in common-source MOSFETs

Abstract

In this paper, CMOS millimeter-wave power amplifiers operating at Q-band (40 GHz) and Ka-band (27 GHz) are presented. The Q-band amplifier was designed using 0.13 mum standard CMOS process having 6 layers of copper metallization, and the amplifier resulted in a small-signal gain of 9.3 dB at 40 GHz when biased at IDS = 53 mA and VDS = 1.5 V. The Ka-band amplifier was design using 0.18 mum RF CMOS process. The amplifier showed a small-signal gain of 14.5 dB at 27 GHz when biased at IDS = 94 mA and VDS = 1.8 V. The results show the potential of CMOS millimeter-wave system-on-chip (SoC) at frequencies greater than 20 GHz.