A Low Stress 20dBm Power Amplifier for LINC Transmission with 50 Peak PAE in 0.25 μm CMOS

摘要

A low stress 1-GHz 0.25 μm CMOS power amplifier intended for Linear Amplification with Non-linear Compo-nents(LINC) transmission is presented. The class-D output stage is partially soft-switched with a stacked pseudo-class-E pre-amplifier driver for increased efficiency. Operating from a 2.5V supply, the amplifier achieves a 50% Power-Added Efficiency(PAE) with a 1-GHz CW signal at a peak output power of 20 dBm. Two tone measurements yield a PAE of 35% with inter-modulation components below 35dBc.