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Analysis and design of an efficient, fully integrated 1–8 GHz traveling wave power amplifier in 180 nm CMOS

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  08 September 2009

Joerg Carls ,
Frank Ellinger ,
Yulin Zhang ,
Udo Joerges  and
Silvan Wehrli
Joerg Carls*
Affiliation:
Chair for Circuit Design and Network Theory, Dresden University of Technology, 01069 Dresden, Germany.
Frank Ellinger
Affiliation:
Chair for Circuit Design and Network Theory, Dresden University of Technology, 01069 Dresden, Germany.
Yulin Zhang
Affiliation:
Chair for Circuit Design and Network Theory, Dresden University of Technology, 01069 Dresden, Germany.
Udo Joerges
Affiliation:
Chair for Circuit Design and Network Theory, Dresden University of Technology, 01069 Dresden, Germany.
Silvan Wehrli
Affiliation:
Electronics Laboratory of the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology Zurich, 8092 Zurich, Switzerland.
*
Corresponding author: Joerg Carls Email: Joerg.Carls@tu-dresden.de
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Abstract

Traveling wave amplifiers (TWAs) offer the advantage of broadband amplification and a closed set of equations that allow deriving the RF gain by means of treating TWAs as discrete transmission line approximations. Up to now, however, the significant losses associated with CMOS integrated inductors have been neglected. This work presents a new approach for determining the transmission line losses and phase constants that will bring about an enhanced gain prediction accuracy. The theory is verified by means of a realized design example. The working principle of the integrated DC supply inductor is discussed, whose performance is based on the inductors self-resonance effect. When applying a supply voltage Vdd of 2.4 V, the measured compression point P1 dB and the power added efficiency PAE at 2.4 GHz amount to 16.9 dBm and 19.6%, respectively. At 5.5 GHz, a value of 16.6 dBm for P1 dB and an associated PAE of 13.9% are achieved. The peak RF gain for these output power values reaches 11 dB, and values greater than 8 dB are obtained up to 7 GHz.

Keywords

Distributed amplifiersPower amplifiersCMOS analog integrated circuitsTraveling wave amplifiersTransmission lines
Type
Original Article
Information
International Journal of Microwave and Wireless Technologies , Volume 1 , Issue 5 , October 2009 , pp. 415 - 422
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press and the European Microwave Association 2009

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References

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