Second Harmonic 60-GHz Power Amplifiers in 130-nm CMOS

Two different frequency doubling power amplifier topologies have been compared, one with differential input and one with single-ended, both with single-ended output at 60 GHz. The frequency doubling capability is valuable from at least two perspectives, 1) the high frequency signal is on the chip as little as possible 2) the voltage controlled oscillator and power amplifier are at different frequencies easing the isolation of the two in a transceiver. The topologies have been simulated in a 1p8M 130-nm CMOS process. The resonant nodes are tuned with on-chip transmission lines. These have been simulated in ADS and compared to a standard Cadence component, tline3. The Cadence component gives a somewhat pessimistic estimation of the losses in the transmission line. The single ended input amplifier outputs a maximum of 3.7 dBm and draws 27 mA from a 1.2 V supply, while the one with differential input outputs 5.0 dBm and draws 28 mA. The 3-dB bandwidth of the amplifiers are 5.9 GHz and 6.8 GHz, respectively

A 90 nm CMOS 10 GHz beam forming transmitter

A 10 GHz beam forming transmitter was designed in a 90 nm CMOS process. Two power amplifiers with independently controllable phase enable the beam forming. The controllable phase is accomplished by switching in binary weighted transistors fed by quadrature signals, which are generated by a quadrature voltage controlled oscillator followed by a buffer. The design contains seven differential on-chip inductors, and consumes a total of 44.0 mA from a 1.2 V supply. The desired output power of 5 dBm per power amplifier is delivered at a power added efficiency of 22 % for the power amplifie

A 1.8 GHz CMOS VCO with reduced phase noise

A 2 V, 6 mA, 15% tuning range, 1.8 GHz VCO implemented in a standard 0.35 μm CMOS process is presented. The phase noise of the VCO has been greatly reduced by means of on-chip filters and one off-chip low frequency inductor. The phase noise measured at 3 MHz offset from the carrier is between -141.5 dBc/Hz and -138.5 dBc/Hz over the whole tuning rang

An 8-GHz beamforming transmitter IC in 130-nm CMOS

An 8-GHz beamforming transmitter IC has been designed in a 130-nm CMOS process. Two power amplifiers with independently controllable phase enable the beamforming. The phases are digitally controllable over the full 360° range, which is accomplished by binary weighting of quadrature phase signals in the power amplifiers. The quadrature phase signals are generated by a quadrature voltage controlled oscillator followed by a buffer, which serves as an isolation between the power amplifiers and the oscillator. The chip contains seven on-chip differential inductors, and consumes a total of 47 mA from a 1.0 V supply. The measured output power is -3 dBm for each power amplifier. © 2007 IEEE

60 GHz 130-nm CMOS Second Harmonic Power Amplifiers

Abstract—Two different frequency doubling power amplifiers have been measured, one with differential and one with singleended input, both with single-ended output at 60 GHz. The amplifiers have been implemented in a 1p8M 130-nm CMOS process. The resonant nodes are tuned to 30 GHz or 60 GHz using on-chip transmission lines, which have been simulated in ADS and Momentum. The measured input impedance of the single-ended PA is high at 250 Ω, and the differential input is similar, making the PA a suitable load for an oscillator in a fully integrated transmitter. The single-ended and differential input PA delivers 1 dBm and 3 dBm, respectively, of measured saturated output power to 50 Ω, both with a drain efficiency of 8%

A 100MHz CMOS wideband IF amplifier

When the data rates of communication systems increase, wideband IF amplifiers are needed. It is also possible to use a single wideband intermediate frequency (IF) amplifier for a radio band with several narrow-band channels of varying strengths. The linearity is then critical, if intermodulation products are not to disturb weak channels. We try to find a topology for this new amplifier application, suitable for integration in a standard CMOS process. To get low distortion, we use an output stage with high linearity, which is further linearized by feedback in a double-nested Miller configuration. A 0.8-μm standard CMOS IF amplifier design with low distortion up to 20 MHz is presented