A 1.95GHz 28dBm fully integrated packaged power amplifier presenting a 3G FOM of 80 (PAE+ACLR) designed in H9SOIFEM CMOS 130nm: Development of an optimized high performances RF SOI power cell

Abstract

A fully integrated and packaged Power Amplifier (PA) has been realized in 130nm STMicroelectronics H9SOIFEM. The PA is based on a new dedicated power cell delivering very good RF performances. At 28dBm output power, ACPR is -40dBc and PAE is 40%, reaching a FOM (ACPR+PAE) of 80 at 1.95GHz 3G standard, under 3.4V. Neither linearization nor efficiency enhancement technics have been used. The core power transistor provides very high power added efficiency (PAE) of 75% at a gain of 18dB typical, around 2GHz. This technology has been optimized for low cost RF front end module (FEM) applications.