A35.2 dBm CMOS RF Power Amplifier Using an 8-Way Current-Voltage Combining Transformer with Harmonic Control

Abstract

A fully integrated CMOS power amplifier with 8-way current-voltage combining transformer is performed in tsmc65nm GP CMOS process. For the high power CMOS PA design, a novel hybrid-type power combining transformer is proposed. Four identical PAs are used and their output power are combined by an 8-way current-voltage combining transformer. With 3.3V power supply, the proposed power amplifier provides maximum output power of 35.2dBm and peak power added efficiency of 38.73% at 2.4GHz operating frequency. At 1dB compression point, the proposed power amplifier exhibits high output power of 33.1dBm with power add efficiency of 28.8%.