A 26 dBm output power SiGe power amplifier for mobile 16 QAM LTE applications

This paper presents a silicon germanium (SiGe) HBT power amplifier (PA) for mobile long term evolution (LTE) applications. The PA consists of a 2-stage cascade structure for high gain and 3 matching networks; input, inter-stage, and output matching network. The matching networks were designed to have a reduced insertion loss and size. The PA is fabricated using 0.35μm SiGe BiCMOS technology with a low inductance through-silicon-via (TSV). The PA a gain of 28.5dB, a PAE of 26.6%, an EVM of 2.8%, and an ACLR1 of -32.5 dBc at the output power of 26 dBm for 10MHz BW 16 QAM LTE signals.