RF-pad, Transmission Lines and balun optimization for 60GHz 65nm CMOS Power Amplifier

Abstract

Design and optimization of 65nm CMOS passive devices which are used in the implementation of a 60GHz Power Amplifier (PA) are presented. The targeted application is the low cost Wireless Personal Area Network (WPAN). A new optimized Radio Frequency (RF)-pad is used to minimize the losses of the PA access. The PA is matched via balun and Transmission Lines (T-Lines). T-Lines ensure both broadband inter-stage matching and biasing. S-parameters and large signal measurement results are demonstrated and compared with electromagnetic simulations. The PA achieves a maximum output power P <sub xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">sat</sub> of 7.3dBm with a gain of 8.5dB while consuming 96mA from a 1.2V supply. The active die area of the chip is 0.065mm <sup xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">2</sup> . Additionally, innovative technique is adopted in the balun design to improve the balanced-to-unbalanced mode conversion and PA performances.