A monolithic 1.85GHz 2-stage sige power amplifier with envelope tracking for improved linear power and efficiency

Ruili Wu, Yan Li, Jerry Lopez, Donald Y.C. Lie

Research output: Chapter in Book/Report/Conference proceedingConference contributionpeer-review

5 Scopus citations

Abstract

In this paper, a monolithic 2-stage differential power amplifier (PA) is designed and fabricated in the 0.35 m IBM 5PAe SiGe BiCMOS technology where the through-wafer-vias (TWVs) are available. A cascode topology is adopted to relieve the voltage stress for the power stage transistors. All components are integrated on-chip for the PA except the input/output baluns. The envelope tracking (ET) technique is applied to this 2-stage PA to enhance the PAE and linearity for high power-to-average-ratio (PAR) Long-Term-Evolution (LTE) signals. The ET-based PA system achieves a linear output power of 20.4 dBm with a gain of 30.5 dB and an overall system PAE of 22%, using an LTE 16QAM 5 MHz signal with 7.5 dB PAR at 1.85 GHz. Compared to the 2-stage PA operating with fixed voltage supplies, the ET-based PA system improves the linear output power by 3.2 dB and its system PAE by over 10%.

Original languageEnglish
Title of host publication2012 International Symposium on VLSI Design, Automation and Test, VLSI-DAT 2012 - Proceedings of Technical Papers
DOIs
StatePublished - 2012
Event2012 International Symposium on VLSI Design, Automation and Test, VLSI-DAT 2012 - Hsinchu, Taiwan, Province of China
Duration: Apr 23 2012Apr 25 2012

Publication series

Name2012 International Symposium on VLSI Design, Automation and Test, VLSI-DAT 2012 - Proceedings of Technical Papers

Conference

Conference2012 International Symposium on VLSI Design, Automation and Test, VLSI-DAT 2012
Country/TerritoryTaiwan, Province of China
CityHsinchu
Period04/23/1204/25/12

Keywords

  • Long-Term-Evolution (LTE)
  • Real Time Spectrum Analyzer (RSA)
  • differential cascode PA
  • envelope tracking (ET)
  • linear output power
  • monolithic SiGe BiCMOS power amplifier (PA)
  • peak-to-average-power-ratio (PAPR)

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