A 60 GHz CMOS power amplifier based on an equivalent substrate model for microstrip

A 60 GHz fully differential power amplifier (PA) based on microstrip line (MSL) is presented in this paper. To accelerate design and characterization in EDA simulators circuit simulations, an equivalent substrate model extraction method for MSL is introduced. A differential three-stage cascode PA prototype is implemented in 65-nm bulk CMOS process for demonstration. The proposed PA has a 3-dB bandwidth ranging from 50 to 61 GHz, and generates saturation output power of 11.7 dBm with 20 dB gain, at 60 GHz. The test and simulation results agree well, indicating the effectiveness of the extracted model. This MSL model based design approach will pave a quick way for millimeter-wave power amplifier designs.