A 1.8-GHz CMOS Power Amplifier Using a Dual-Primary Transformer With Improved Efficiency in the Low Power Region

Author

Park, Changkun ; Han, Jeonghu ; Kim, Haksun ; Hong, Songcheol

Author_Institution

Korea Adv. Inst. of Sci. & Technol., Daejeon

Volume

56

Issue

4

fYear

2008

fDate

4/1/2008 12:00:00 AM

Firstpage

782

Lastpage

792

Abstract

A 1.8-GHz CMOS power amplifier for a polar transmitter is implemented with a 0.18- RF CMOS process. The matching components, including the input and output transformers, were integrated. A dual-primary transformer is proposed in order to increase the efficiency in the low power region of the amplifier. The loss induced by the matching network for the low-output power region is minimized using the dual-primary transformer. The amplifier achieved a power-added efficiency of 40.7% at a maximum output power of 31.6 dBm. The dynamic range was 34 dB for a supply voltage that ranged from 0.5 to 3.3 V. The low power efficiency was 32% at the output power of 16 dBm.

Keywords

CMOS integrated circuits; microwave amplifiers; microwave integrated circuits; power amplifiers; power integrated circuits; power transformers; CMOS power amplifier; dual-primary transformer; efficiency 32 percent; efficiency 40.7 percent; frequency 1.8 GHz; low power region; polar transmitter; power-added efficiency; size 0.18 mum; voltage 0.5 V to 3.3 V; Class-E; dynamic range; global system for mobile communication (GSM); load impedance; mode locking; polar transmitter; transformer; variable load;

fLanguage

English

Journal_Title

Microwave Theory and Techniques, IEEE Transactions on

Publisher

ieee

ISSN

0018-9480

Type

jour

DOI

10.1109/TMTT.2008.918152

Filename

4460584