An F-Band Power Amplifier with Skip-Layer Via Achieving 23.8% PAE in FinFET Technology

Abstract

This paper presents an F-band power amplifier (PA) designed using novel back-end-of-line (BEOL) in Intel 16 technology. In the PA transistor array, skip-layer vias which directly connect transistor to thick metal layers are used to reduce parasitics from BEOL and improve the PA performance. This 2-stage PA shows excellent peak PAE and gain per stage. At 110GHz, the measured <tex xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">$\mathrm{P}_{\text{sat}}$</tex> , peak PAE, linear power gain, and OP1dB are 11.8dBm, 23.8%, 17.1dB, and 9.2dBm, respectively. The core area of the PA is 0.023mm <sup xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">2</sup> , enabling compact integration into phased array or waveguide based transceivers. To the authors' knowledge, this is the first circuit demonstration using skip-layer via that operates beyond 100GHz.