Broadband CMOS class-E power amplifier for LTE applications

High level integration for system on chip (SOC) applications motivates the development of broadband power amplifiers (PAs) in low cost CMOS technology to reduce size and power consumption of any wireless system. However, integration of one of the key components in a transmitter-the PA still remains a challenge. In this paper, a single stage broadband class-E PA based on lumped element load transformation network (LTN) in 90 nm CMOS technology for LTE band i.e. 2.67 GHz is presented. The simulations with a 2.5 V supply voltage show that the designed PA can deliver an output power (P_out) of 22.9 dBm with an associated power gain (G) of 8.9 dB and power added efficiency (PAE) of 60.4 %. A PAE of more than 55 %, output power of 21.5 dBm and a gain of more than 7.5 dB was achieved over a wide bandwidth i.e. from 2.3 GHz to 3.3 GHz. The frequency range also covers wireless local area network (WLAN) and bluetooth applications.