A G-band Cascode Power Amplifier in 0.13 um SiGe BiCMOS Technology

Abstract

A G-band output stage power amplifier is designed in 0.13 um SiGe BiCMOS technology. Using a single-end cascode power amplifier topology with heterojunction bipolar transistors (HBTs), the single stage circuit achieves a saturated output power of 8.2 dBm, a peak small signal gain of 9 dB and a peak PAE of 3.7% operating at 185 GHz with 4 V supply. By selecting optimally sized HBTs in the each stage and optimizing the cascode layout structure to reduce parasitics, high output power and high gain are achieved. The final layout power amplifier achieved 1-dB saturated output power bandwidth from 171–196 GHz and 3-dB gain bandwidth from 174–194 GHz.