Title :
SOI MESFET RF power amplifiers at the 45nm node
Author :
Wilk, Seth J. ; Lepkowski, William ; Thornton, Trevor J.
Author_Institution :
Arizona State Univ., Tempe, AZ, USA
Abstract :
A high voltage compliance silicon metal-semiconductor-field-effect-transistor (MESFET) fabricated using a 45nm SOI CMOS process has been designed for RF power amplifier applications requiring Pout greater than 1W. The breakdown voltage of the MESFET is more than 15V and allows a large-signal drain voltage swing that greatly exceeds the breakdown of the 45nm CMOS. The DC and AC characteristics of the MESFET have been used to extract an Angelov Spice model of the device for simulation of the RF power amplifier. A Class AB MESFET PA was designed for operation at 900 MHz and demonstrated a peak power added efficiency of 37.6 %, gain of 11.1 dB, OIP3 of 39.3 dBm and 1 dB compression point at an output power of 31.6 dBm. The first measurements of a SOI MESFET 2GHz RF power amplifier are also shown.
Keywords :
CMOS integrated circuits; MESFET integrated circuits; SPICE; UHF power amplifiers; elemental semiconductors; integrated circuit design; integrated circuit manufacture; radiofrequency amplifiers; silicon; silicon-on-insulator; Angelov Spice model; CMOS; Class AB MESFET PA; RF power amplifiers; SOI; Si; frequency 2 GHz; frequency 900 MHz; metal-semiconductor-field-effect-transistor; silicon-on-insulator; size 45 nm; voltage 15 V; CMOS integrated circuits; MESFETs; Power amplifiers; Power generation; Power measurement; Radio frequency; Silicon; Angelov model; MESFETs; power amplifiers; silicon-on-insulator (SOI);
Conference_Titel :
Power Amplifiers for Wireless and Radio Applications (PAWR), 2014 IEEE Topical Conference on
Conference_Location :
Newport Beach, CA
Print_ISBN :
978-1-4799-2298-7
DOI :
10.1109/PAWR.2014.6825725
