A V-Band Power Amplifier With 1-dB Step Saturated Power Control for Multimode Radar Applications

Abstract

This letter presents a V-band high-efficiency power amplifier (PA) with 1-dB step saturated output power ( ${P} _{\mathbf {sat}}$ ) control resolution to support different radar applications. The power control is accomplished by digitally programming the transistor width of the 6-bit power-stage ${g} _{\mathbf {m}}$ arrays. The two-way current-combining technique improves the output power and efficiency with a compact area. The PA is fabricated in 65-nm CMOS and occupies a compact core area of 0.079 mm $^{\mathbf {2}}$ . It achieves a ${P} _{\mathbf {sat}}$ of 13.6 dBm with a 28.5% peak power-added efficiency (PAE) at 60.5 GHz. The measured ${P} _{\mathbf {sat}}$ is >11.6 dBm at 55–67 GHz and has a 7-dB tuning range with a 1-dB step. The measured ${P} _{\mathbf {sat}}$ control error is <0.21 dB with calibration.