A broadband, high isolation millimeter-wave CMOS power amplifier using a transformer and transmission line matching topology

This paper presents the design and characterization of a broadband millimeter-wave PA realized in a 130 nm standard RF-CMOS process with 8-metal-layer and transistor f_T/f_MAX of 117/161 GHz. The power amplifier adopts transformer and transmission line matching topology which achieves small area of die and wide bandwidth. A new lumped transformer model is proposed to facilitate the optimization. The measured 3 dB bandwidth is 20 GHz (from 47 to 67 GHz), the measured maximum gain is about 8.6 dB, output 1 dB compression power is 9.36 dBm and consumes 90 mA current from DC supply 1.2 V. Including GSG and DC pads, the PA occupies a compact chip area of 0.318 mm², and without pads, the PA occupies 0.141 mm².