A Broadband 300 GHz Power Amplifier in a 130 nm SiGe BiCMOS Technology for Communication Applications
Open Access
- 8 April 2022
- journal article
- research article
- Published by Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) in IEEE Journal of Solid-State Circuits
- Vol. 57 (7) , 2024-2034
Abstract
A broadband three-stage pseudo-differential SiGe-interconnection bipolar transistor (HBT) power amplifier (PA) for high-speed communication at around 300 GHz is presented. The amplifier is fabricated in an experimental 130-nm SiGe BiCMOS technology with an $f_{t}/f_{\max }$ of 470/650 GHz. The use of asymmetric coupled line transformers is proposed to facilitate broadband impedance transformation with device reactance compensation at all amplifier interfaces. The amplifier achieves a maximum small-signal power gain of 23.0 dB and a $P_{\mathrm{ sat}}/{\mathrm{ OP}}_{\mathrm{ 1\,dB}}$ up to 9.7/6.7 dBm, respectively. It shows a 3-dB bandwidth of 63 GHz (239–302 GHz) in small-signal operation and 94 GHz (223–317 GHz) when saturated. The amplifier consumes about 360 mW at a 3-V supply voltage yielding a peak power-added efficiency (PAE) of 1.95% at 260 GHz.Keywords
Funding Information
- Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) through the Project DotSeven2IC (DFG PF 661/15-1)
- Project C04 (287022738-TRR 196)
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