Wideband class AB RF power amplifier using CMOS compatible SOI-MESFET device on 150nm technology

Author

Ghajar, M. Reza ; Wilk, Seth J. ; Lepkowski, William ; Bakkaloglu, Bertan ; Thornton, Trevor J.

Author_Institution

Arizona State Univ., Tempe, AZ, USA

fYear

2012

Firstpage

21

Lastpage

24

Abstract

In this paper, a wideband class AB power amplifier (PA) centered around 400MHz with 200MHz bandwidth, featuring a CMOS compatible MESFET on a 150 nm SOI technology is presented. It is the first board level demonstration of a SOI-MESFET based RF PA. SOI-MESFETs are an ideal candidate for integrated RF PAs due to their enhanced voltage capability and high cut-off frequency. The MESFET used in this design had a peak f_T of 22 GHz and a soft-breakdown of 5V; however, different MESFETs on the same process have achieved a breakdown voltage up to 12V and peak f_T up to 40 GHz. Comparatively, the standard CMOS transistors on this process have a maximum steady-state voltage of 1.95V. A peak PAE of 48% has been measured while delivering 17dBm of power to a 50 load. Also, a calibrated TOM3 model has been developed for simulation purposes.

Keywords

CMOS integrated circuits; Schottky gate field effect transistors; power amplifiers; radiofrequency amplifiers; silicon-on-insulator; wideband amplifiers; CMOS compatible SOI-MESFET device; CMOS transistor; TOM3 model; bandwidth 200 MHz; frequency 22 GHz; simulation purpose; size 150 nm; voltage 1.95 V; voltage 5 V; voltage capability; wideband class AB RF power amplifier; CMOS integrated circuits; CMOS technology; Load modeling; Logic gates; MESFETs; Power amplifiers; Radio frequency; MESFETs; Power Amplifiers (PA); silicon-on-insulator (SOI);

fLanguage

English

Publisher

ieee

Conference_Titel

Power Amplifiers for Wireless and Radio Applications (PAWR), 2012 IEEE Topical Conference on

Conference_Location

Santa Clara, CA

Print_ISBN

978-1-4577-1119-0

Type

conf

DOI

10.1109/PAWR.2012.6174946

Filename

6174946