An 8-18GHz class-AB power amplifier with 16dBm output power and 23 PAE over entire X-Ku band

摘要

A broadband class-AB power amplifier (PA) with high efficiency and flat output power over entire X-Ku band is implemented in a 65nm CMOS process. To achieve high efficiency for broadband operation, transformer coupled matching networks are used to achieve wideband matching and a second order harmonic control technique is proposed for the output matching network to increase the output power and efficiency. Post simulation results show that output power and power added efficiency (PAE) are no less than 16dBm and 23% respectively, among the entire X-Ku band. The simulated PA achieves 31% peak PAE with an output power of 17dBm at 8GHz. The simulated gain is 22.2dB±0.6dB, with only 1.2dB gain ripple between 7GHz and 18.5GHz.