Thermal Analysis and Design of a Ka-Band Power Amplifier in 130 nm SiGe BiCMOS

Abstract

This paper presents the design and thermal challenges of large-scale silicon-based power amplifiers (PAs). As an example, a Ka-Band PA in 130 nm silicon germanium (SiGe) BiCMOS with an aluminum back end of line (BEOL) is presented. It is a pseudo differential transformer-based design featuring efficient 2:1 transformers for a high impedance transformation ratio. The PA achieves Psat of 23.2 dBm at 26 % power added efficiency (PAE). Differing results due to on-chip thermal effects are presented and discussed in this paper.