A highly efficient mm-wave CMOS SOI power amplifier

Three mm-wave power amplifiers (PAs), each with 6 stacked transistors, are implemented in Global Foundries 45 nm CMOS SOI technology. As experimentally demonstrated, the design with two triple-Cascode cells with combined transistor layouts achieves the best power performance among the three designs. It achieves a power-added efficiency (PAE) of higher than 40% at 46 GHz and a relatively good power performance from 42 to 54 GHz. At 46 GHz the PA, biased under 6 V, measures a saturated output power (PSAT) of 22.4 dBm, a linear gain of 17.4 dB, a peak PAE of 42%, and a drain efficiency (DE) of 49%. Under a smaller supply voltage of 4.8 V, PSAT is reduced to 20 dBm while DE and peak PAE increase to 53% and 45%, respectively.