133GHz CMOS power amplifier with 16dB gain and +8dBm saturated output power for multi-gigabit communication

Abstract

Indoor communication is desired in CMOS millimeter-wave transceivers. To realize indoor communication, a power amplifier with a high RF output power without compromising gain, bandwidth or power efficiency is required. In this paper, a strategic design for gate width selection and matching-network optimization is introduced. A power amplifier is fabricated using a 40 nm CMOS technology process with a chip area of 0.30 mm2 and a power consumption of 89.1 mW at 1.1 V DC supply. Its peak gain is 16.8 dB at 133 GHz and its 3 dB bandwidth is 13.0 GHz. Its output-referred 1 dB compression point is 6.8 dBm, its saturated output power is 8.6 dBm and its peak power added efficiency is 7.4%. The performance of this power amplifier is evaluated using an indicator and it is confirmed that it has the best performance among power amplifiers over 100 GHz.