A 1-V CMOS power amplifier for Bluetooth applications

A two-stage power amplifier operated at 2.4 GHz is designed and fabricated in a standard 0.35-(mu)/m CMOS technology. A common-gate class-E power amplifier is employed for low-supply voltage operation without degrading the power-added efficiency (PAE). A preamplifier with positive feedback configuration is used to drive the common-gate output stage. The amplifier delivers 18-dB output power with 33% PAE under a 1-V supply voltage.