A highly integrated dual-band SiGe power amplifier that enables 256 QAM 802.11ac WLAN radio front-end designs

A highly integrated SiGe BiCMOS PA is presented that enables the emerging high throughput 802.11ac WLAN applications. The PA has two stages for the g-band and three stages for the a-band PA, and integrates matching circuitry, out of band rejection filters, power detectors, and bias controls in a 1.5 ×1.6 mm chip. The g-band PA achieves 28 dB gain with 2% EVM at 18 dBm and 3% at 19.5 dBm output power. The a-band PA achieves 32 dB gain with 2% EVM at 18 dBm and 3% EVM at 19 dBm output power. The design is verified meeting not only the regulatory out-of-band emission requirements but also the linearity requirement of the emerging 256 QAM 802.11ac standard.