A 45GHz Doherty power amplifier with 23% PAE and 18dBm output power, in 45nm SOI CMOS

A 45GHz Doherty power amplifier is implemented in 45nm SOI CMOS. Two-stack FET amplifiers are used as main and auxiliary amplifiers, allowing a supply voltage of 2.5V and high output power. The use of slow-wave coplanar waveguides (CPW) improves the PAE and gain by approximately 3% and 1dB, and reduces the die area by 20%. This amplifier exhibits more than 18dBm saturated output power, with peak power gain of 7dB. It occupies 0.64mm
²
while achieving a peak PAE of 23%; at 6dB back-off the PAE is 17%.