A Wideband 77-GHz Power Amplifier with Mixed Matching Network in 130-nm BiCMOS Technology

A wideband 77-GHz fully integrated power amplifier with on-chip transformer-based
$50-\Omega$
input and output matching network is demonstrated in a 130-nm BiCMOS process. A microstrip line-transformer mixed matching network is adopted to realize the impedance transformation in a rather compact structure. Stability issue is considered through the whole design. By carefully designing the layout, the chip occupies a small area of 0.202 mm
²
and parasitic effects are optimized. By employing wideband transformer matching method and differential cascode topology, the PA finally achieves an overall bandwidth of 13 GHz with a peak gain of 23.9 dB. Using an adaptive bias circuit, the PA delivers an output 1-dB gain compression point (OP
1dB
) of 13.1 dBm with a peak power added efficiency (PAE) of 10.1%.