A Two-Way Current-Combining W-band Power Amplifier Achieving 17.4-dBm Output Power with 19.4% PAE in 65-nm Bulk CMOS

In this paper, the analysis and design of a 94-GHz CMOS power amplifier (PA) is proposed. The layout of the transistors is optimized to improve the maximum stable gain, stability, and robustness. Capacitor neutralization technique and power-combining technique are adopted to boost the gain and output power of the proposed PA. The PA is designed in 65-nm bulk CMOS technology and all the electromagnetic (EM) simulations are carried out in HFSS. The PA realizes a peak gain of 27.7 dB at 94 GHz, with a wide _3-dB bandwidth across 86-101 GHz. With a 1.2-V supply voltage and 303-mW power consumption, the PA achieves a saturated output power ($\text{P}_{\text{s}\text{a}\text{t}}$) of 17.4 dBm and 19.4% power-added efficiency (PAE). The proposed PA is suitable for a W-band radio imaging system.