High-gain Broadband CMOS Distributed Power Amplifier for 5G Communications

Analysis and design of an mm-wave wideband distributed power amplifier (PA) based on SMIC 40nm CMOS technology are presented. Stacked structure based on triple cascode cells forms the power cells of the distributed amplifier. Combining the active power division and power combination networks, the distributed amplifier achieves a simulated output 1dB compression point
$(OP_{1dB})$
15.04dBm, peak power-added efficiency (PAE) of 6% and a saturated output power
$(P_{sat})$
of 19.45 dBm at 24 GHz. The amplifier achieves maximum gain of higher than 22dB in the simulated bandwidth from 14 to 34 GHz.