A 1.6-2.6GHz 29dBm Injection-Locked Power Amplifier with 64% peak PAE in 65nm CMOS

• This paper presents a wideband CMOS power amplifier intended for cellular handset applications. The circuit exploits injection locking to achieve a power gain of 20.5dB from a single stage amplifier. The maximum output power of 29dBm, with a peak drain- and power-added-efficiency (PAE) of 66% and 64%, respectively, occurs at a center frequency of 2GHz with a 3V supply. A cross-coupled cascode topology enables a wideband PAE exceeding 50% from 1.6 to 2.6GHz. For output power levels below 4dBm the circuit operates as a linear class AB amplifier with a power consumption of 17mW from a 0.48V supply. The power gain of 20.5dB is kept constant for all output powers; with an AM-AM- and AM-PM-conversion of 0.2dB and 17deg, respectively, over the entire WCDMA dynamic range of 80dB. The circuit is implemented in a standard 65nm CMOS process with a total chip area of 0.52x0.48mm2 including pads.

Subject headings

TEKNIK OCH TEKNOLOGIER  -- Elektroteknik och elektronik (hsv//swe)

ENGINEERING AND TECHNOLOGY  -- Electrical Engineering, Electronic Engineering, Information Engineering (hsv//eng)

Keyword

Power efficiency

Poweramplifier

Injection lock

CMOS

Hybrid EER

Publication and Content Type

kon (subject category)

ref (subject category)