Millimeter-wave CMOS switching power amplifiers

Millimeter-wave switching power amplifiers are developed both in V-band and in W-band targeting successful line-up implementations in low-power transmitter applications using 45nm SOI CMOS process. The single power-stage V-band power amplifier is designed using mixed switching mode class-ElF topology and achieves 10dBm Psat, 20% peak PAE and >45% drain efficiency at 52GHz from 1.0V supply. This is the highest reported drain efficiency for a millimeter-wave CMOS power amplifier to the best of the authors´ knowledge. The W-band power amplifier has two class-AB driving stages and the 3^rd power-stage utilized class-E switching mode topology. This PA achieves 6dBm Psat with 7.0dB power gain and 7% peak PAE at 1.0V supply. Both power amplifier performances demonstrate promising low-power CMOS millimeter-wave transmitter applications.