A 1-Watt Ku-band power amplifier in SiGe with 37.5% PAE

This paper demonstrates a 1-Watt output power amplifier MMIC operating from 13.5GHz to 14.5GHz (Ku-band). The power amplifier employs an on-chip integrated 16-way in-phase output current combiner to achieve the required output power. Implemented in a 0.25-μm SiGe:C BiCMOS technology, the power amplifier achieves a power-added efficiency of 37.5% at 14.1GHz with greater than 35.5% across the band of interest.