94GHz power-combining power amplifier with +13dBm saturated output power in 65nm CMOS

Abstract

A power combining power amplifier utilizing cascode topology and transformer-based matching elements is presented in this paper. The amplifier achieves +13 dBm saturated output power at 94 GHz with a standard 1.2 V supply and occupies an active area of only 0.069 mm <sup xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">2</sup> . Amplifier is implemented in an industrial 65nm CMOS process taking into account reliability issues at high output power level. The amplifier is also ESD-protected at the input and at the output.