Highly linear 1.6 GHz 3.3V RF power amplifier using floating body technique in triple-well 130 nm CMOS technology

摘要

Power amplifiers (PAs) in CMOS technology have drawn considerable interest for meeting 4^th generation (4 G) wireless standards due to their low cost and high level of integration. At increasing power levels, (around 1 W), it becomes challenging to meet the linearity constraints. In this paper, we investigate a differential common source class-AB RF PA employing floating body and compare it with a body-source shorted version. We use triple-well NMOS RF devices at 1.6 GHz in 130nm CMOS technology. Linearity is improved for the floating body based amplifier in terms of AM/PM and 3^rd order intermodulation (IMD3) suppression by 1.8° and 1.5 dBc at P1dB as compared to a body-source shorted amplifier. The linearity is evident over all output power (Pout) levels. The linear gain is reduced by 0.42 dB due to increased coupling between drain and source terminals while the PAE is increased by 1.6% at P1dB for floating body based amplifier.