A 60GHz-band 1V 11.5dBm power amplifier with 11% PAE in 65nm CMOS

Sub-1 V supplies limit the output voltage swing and saturated output power of an amplifier integrated in deep-submicron CMOS technology. Aside from absolute output power, power-added efficiency (PAE), stability and gain are also important power-amplifier (PA) design considerations. High reverse isolation between output and input is necessary to mitigate the effects of antenna mismatch, limit unwanted interference between circuit blocks on-chip and to promote stability. Efficiency of the PA is also paramount for portable consumer electronic applications operating from a battery, such as short-range Gb/s communication SoCs operating in the unlicensed bands around 60 GHz. Aside from the 60 GHz band, long-range collision-avoidance radar for automobiles (77/79 GHz), and radio imaging (94 GHz) are also potential applications for CMOS at mm-wave frequencies.