A 72.2Mbit/s Transformer-Based Power Amplifier in 65nm CMOS for 2.4GHz 802.11n WLAN

This paper describes the design of a power amplifier (PA) for WLAN 802.11n fabricated in 65 nm CMOS technology. The PA utilizes 3.3 V thick-gate oxide (5.2 nm) transistors and a two-stage differential configuration with two integrated transformers for input and interstage matching. For a 72.2 Mbit/s, 64-QAM, 802.11n OFDM signal at an average and peak output power of 11.6 dBm and 19.6 dBm, respectively, the measured EVM is 3.8%. The PA meets the spectral mask up to an average output power of 17 dBm.