TY - GEN
T1 - Design trade-offs for single-ended vs. differential class-E SiGe bipolar power amplifiers with through-wafer-vias at 2.4GHz
AU - Wu, Ruili
AU - Li, Yan
AU - Lopez, Jerry
AU - Lie, Donald Y.C.
PY - 2011
Y1 - 2011
N2 - In this paper, we examine the design trade-offs of several Watt-level 2-stage single-ended and differential Class-E SiGe power amplifiers (PAs) at 2.4GHz. The circuits are designed in a 0.35μm IBM 5PAe SiGe BiCMOS technology with through-wafer-via (TWV) technology to minimize the detrimental parasitic ground inductance. SPICE simulations show that a 2-stage single-ended cascode PA can achieve high power gain of 30 dB with output power Psat/P 1dB =29.5/27dBm, peak power-added efficiency (PAE) of 51%, with -30dBc 2nd order harmonics and -44dBc 3rd order harmonics for CW input. Using a low-loss output balun, a differential PA can deliver higher output power than its single-ended counterpart; however, our proposed TWV-aided single-ended PA exhibits much better PAE with a smaller die area than its differential PA counterpart. The advantage of the differential PA will diminish quickly when the loss of the required output balun reaches above 1dB.
AB - In this paper, we examine the design trade-offs of several Watt-level 2-stage single-ended and differential Class-E SiGe power amplifiers (PAs) at 2.4GHz. The circuits are designed in a 0.35μm IBM 5PAe SiGe BiCMOS technology with through-wafer-via (TWV) technology to minimize the detrimental parasitic ground inductance. SPICE simulations show that a 2-stage single-ended cascode PA can achieve high power gain of 30 dB with output power Psat/P 1dB =29.5/27dBm, peak power-added efficiency (PAE) of 51%, with -30dBc 2nd order harmonics and -44dBc 3rd order harmonics for CW input. Using a low-loss output balun, a differential PA can deliver higher output power than its single-ended counterpart; however, our proposed TWV-aided single-ended PA exhibits much better PAE with a smaller die area than its differential PA counterpart. The advantage of the differential PA will diminish quickly when the loss of the required output balun reaches above 1dB.
KW - CMOS PA
KW - SiGe power amplifier (PA)
KW - differential PA
KW - power-added efficiency (PAE)
KW - through-wafer-via (TWV)
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=80053650800&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1109/MWSCAS.2011.6026691
DO - 10.1109/MWSCAS.2011.6026691
M3 - Conference contribution
AN - SCOPUS:80053650800
SN - 9781612848570
T3 - Midwest Symposium on Circuits and Systems
BT - 54th IEEE International Midwest Symposium on Circuits and Systems, MWSCAS 2011
T2 - 54th IEEE International Midwest Symposium on Circuits and Systems, MWSCAS 2011
Y2 - 7 August 2011 through 10 August 2011
ER -