A Ka-Band 4-Stack Power Amplifier in 130-nm SiGe BiCMOS

Abstract

In this paper, a single-stage SiGe BiCMOS power amplifier is demonstrated for 32-38 GHz with the stacked BJTs. To maintain a wideband bandwidth, interstage shunt inductors are used to resonate out the parasitic capacitance between the stacked BJTs. The Wilkinson power divider/combiner are also used to boost the output power. The power amplifier is designed in a 130nm SiGe BiCMOS technology. It achieves a saturated output power (PSAT) of 21 dBm and a peak PAE of 39%. The gain is larger than 17.5 dB from 32-38 GHz. The chip area is 2.09 mm2 including pads.