SiGe HBT PA Design for 5G (28 GHz and Beyond) - Modeling and Design Challenges

This paper highlights some of the modeling and design challenges that we are facing in 5G mm-wave power amplifier (PA) design. Descending from the phased-array system down to the core transistor operation, the critical aspects that influence the performance become apparent. Especially the thermal impact of the total system sets harsh requirements on power dissipation, linearity, ruggedness and reliability of the PA. Therefore, the modeling quality of these characteristics is key in the success of beamformers for 5G mm-wave mobile networks.