Wideband harmonic-tuned CMOS power amplifier with 19.5 dBm output power and 22.6% PAE over entire X-band

A wideband power amplifier (PA) with high output power and efficiency over the entire X-band is implemented in a 0.11 μm CMOS technology. To achieve high efficiency in the wideband, a new harmonic-tuned technique is proposed for the output matching network of the PA, while no radio frequency (RF) choke is used for DC bias. Measurement results show that the output power and power-added efficiency (PAE) are no less than 19.5 dBm and 22.6%, respectively, over the entire X-band. The peak PAE is 28.9% with an output power of 20.3 dBm at 9 GHz.