A Broadband Millimeter-Wave Continuous-Mode Class-F Power Amplifier Based on the Deembedded Transistor Model

In this letter, a broadband millimeter-wave (mm-wave) continuous-mode Class-F power amplifier (PA) based on the deembedded transistor model is proposed for the fifth-generation (5G) applications. To design the output matching network at the intrinsic current-generator plane, an S-parameter fitting method is proposed to extract the parasitic parameters of nonpackaged transistors over a wide frequency range. The PA is implemented in the 0.13-mu m SiGe BiCMOS process, which occupies only 0.42 mm(2). By controlling the even and odd harmonics impedance, the PA achieves a 78.2% -3-dB small-signal gain fractional bandwidth from 21.1 to 48.2 GHz. The -1-dB P-sat bandwidth covers 21-43 GHz (68.8% fractional bandwidth) and the saturated output powers are 17.2-18.1 dBm. Meanwhile, the designed PA provides a 24.1%-32.1% peak power-added efficiency (PAE) over the band.