77-110 GHz 65-nm CMOS Power Amplifier Design

Abstract

This paper details the development of our millimeter-wave wideband power amplifier design. By treating the power combiner as an impedance transformer which allows different loading impedance to be taken into account, a compact wideband power-combining network can be constructed. With small transmission-line attenuation being sustained and maximum output power easily extracted from the transistors over the 77-110 GHz frequency range, a power amplifier can then be designed using 65-nm CMOS process to cover the whole W-band. In the on-wafer measurement, the gain is around 18 dB, the output reflection coefficients is below -10 dB, and the output-referred 1 dB compression point can reach 12 dBm at 1.2 V bias condition; when the bias is increased to 2.5 V, a 18 dBm output power is recorded. To our knowledge, this is the first CMOS power amplifier that covers the whole W-band.