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 dB} of 10.3 dBm, power added efficiency (PAE) of 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 dB} 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 70 GHz, with a chip size of 0.66 times 0.5 mm². To the author´s knowledge, this PA demonstrates the highest output power, with the highest gain among the reported CMOS PAs in V-band.