Hot-Carrier Stress Effect on a CMOS 65-nm 60-GHz One-Stage Power Amplifier

The effects of RF hot-carrier stress on the characteristics of 60-GHz power amplifiers (PAs) on a CMOS 65-nm process are investigated, for the first time, in this letter. A reliability study is made on a one-stage PA to validate an aging model and the degradation explanation. A drop of 16% of the gain, 17% of the 1-dB output compression point (OCP_{1 dB}), and 17% of the P_sat are measured at 60 GHz after 50 h of stress under V_dd = 1.65 V with P_in = 0 dBm and V_dd = 1.9 V with P_in = -10 dBm at 60-GHz frequency.