A 33.2 dBm CMOS RF power amplifier using a novel on-chip transformer power combiner for 4G WiMAX applications

A fully integrated 2.4 GHz power amplifier with high output power for WiMAX applications is presented in a standard 0.18 μm CMOS process. A new 4×1:3 power-combining transformer is proposed to achieve high output power. The proposed power amplifier uses four similar PAs which their output currents are summed together. The proposed power amplifier with 3.3 V power supply provides maximum output power of 33.2 dBm and power added efficiency of 37.3% at 2.4 GHz operating frequency. At 1dB compression point, The proposed power amplifier exhibits high output power of 31.6 dBm. The simulation results for the proposed PA with modulated OFDM signal demonstrate that error vector magnitude of -24.76 dB at the average power of 24 dBm can be accomplished.