Wide Band CMOS Power Amplifier with High Flatness Using Inter-Digit Transformer and RC-Feedback

Abstract

In this study, a Ka-band CMOS power amplifier (PA) with wide bandwidth and high flatness to support the full bandwidth of 5G mobile communication was proposed. To obtain wide bandwidth, RC-feedback and inter-digit transformer techniques were applied to the driver stage and matching networks, respectively. In addition, a diode linearizer was applied to the power stage to compensate for the deteriorated output power due to securing wide bandwidth. To verify the feasibility of the proposed Ka-band PA, we designed the PA using a 65-nm RFCMOS process. The designed PA occupies the core area of 0.174 mm2. The measured 1 dB bandwidth and gain were higher than 12 GHz and 13.1 dB, respectively. The measured saturation power, P1dB, and PAE were above 12.53 dBm, 10.8 dBm, and 9.18%, respectively