Title :
Design-in-Reliable Millimeter-Wave Power Amplifiers in a 65-nm CMOS Process
Author :
Quémerais, Thomas ; Moquillon, Laurence ; Fournier, Jean-Michel ; Benech, Philippe ; Huard, Vincent
Author_Institution :
STMicroelectron., Crolles, France
fDate :
4/1/2012 12:00:00 AM
Abstract :
A hot carrier ageing model previously validated on a one-stage 60-GHz power amplifier (PA) is demonstrated to be able to predict the degradation of the characteristic parameters for multistage high-performance millimeter-wave (mmW) PAs. The increase in the threshold voltage, the decrease in the transconductance, and the output conductance of the MOSFETs caused by hot carriers leads to a degradation in performance of the PAs. Consequently, by using this ageing model, the mmW PA lifetime can be extracted. A new PA is then designed, taking into account the ageing effects, and is shown to be reliable during ten years. This amplifier exhibits a power gain of 20 dB, an output 1-dB compression point of 12.5 dBm with 6.6% power-added efficiency, and a saturated output power of 16 dBm at 60 GHz.
Keywords :
CMOS analogue integrated circuits; MOSFET; millimetre wave amplifiers; power amplifiers; semiconductor device reliability; CMOS process; MOSFET; design-in-reliable millimeter-wave power amplifier; frequency 60 GHz; high-performance millimeter-wave PA; hot carrier ageing model; mmW PA; output conductance; power-added efficiency; size 65 nm; threshold voltage; transconductance; Aging; Degradation; Hot carriers; Integrated circuit reliability; Power generation; Transistors; 65-nm technology; CMOS millimeter-wave (mmW) circuits; hot carrier; power amplifier (PA); reliability;
Journal_Title :
Microwave Theory and Techniques, IEEE Transactions on
DOI :
10.1109/TMTT.2012.2184133