A 50 to 70 GHz Power Amplifier Using 90 nm CMOS Technology

A 50 to 70 GHz wideband power amplifier (PA) is developed in MS/RF 90 nm 1P9M CMOS process. This PA achieves a measured P-sat of 13.8 dBm, P-1 d B of 10.3 dBm, power added efficiency (PAE) or 12.6%, and linear power gain of 30 dB at 60 GHz under V-DD biased at 1.8 V. When V-DD is biased at 3 V, it exhibits P-sat of 18 dBm, P-1 d B of 12 dBm, PAE of 15%, and linear gain of 32.4 dB at 60 GHz. The MMIC PA also has a wide 3 dB bandwidth from 50 to 70GHz, with a chip size of 0.66 x 0.5 mm(2). To the author's knowledge, this PA demonstrates the highest output power, with the highest gain among the reported CMOS PAs in V-band.