Design and Analysis of Complex Neutralization Gain-Boosting Technique With Low-Loss Power Combining for Efficient, Linear D-Band Power Amplifiers
METADATA ONLY
Loading...
Author / Producer
Date
2025-01
Publication Type
Journal Article
ETH Bibliography
yes
Citations
Altmetric
METADATA ONLY
Data
Rights / License
Abstract
This article introduces a comprehensive design and optimization approach aimed at significantly improving the power gain of a given device to achieve the theoretical maximum stable power gain, denoted as 4U (with U representing Mason’s Unilateral power gain), across a wide bandwidth. To evaluate the wideband gain enhancement of the device, a device-level Gain-Bandwidth Product ( GBW ) metric is presented. The proposed technique leverages a high-order embedding network, specifically complex neutralization, applied to a differential power device pair. The detailed optimization process is presented alongside theoretical modeling. To address the limited output power at the D-band, a highly efficient power-combining network is co-designed with the output-matching network of the power amplifier (PA). To validate the proposed methodology, a D-band three-stage PA with two-way power combining was implemented using the GlobalFoundries 45-nm SOI process. The amplifier occupies a compact active area of 0.116 mm². Small-signal measurements demonstrate a peak power gain of 21.7-and a 3-dB bandwidth (BW) of 15 GHz, covering the frequency range from 117 to 132 GHz. The enhanced power gain enables the PA drivers to operate efficiently and linearly in class-AB biasing mode at 127.5 GHz, delivering a saturated output power ( P_sat ) of 11.9 dBm, output power at 1 dB compression point ( OP_1dB ) of 11.85 dBm, and a peak power-added efficiency (PAE) of 15%. This allows the PA to achieve an average output power of 7.1 (5.9) dBm under 64-QAM (128-QAM) modulation with a data rate of 27 (16.8) Gb/s. The PA shows an average modulation efficiency of 6.9% (5.15%) with an rms error vector magnitude ( EVM_rms ) better than − 24.8 ( − 25.7) dB.
Permanent link
Publication status
published
External links
Editor
Book title
Journal / series
Volume
73 (1)
Pages / Article No.
195 - 205
Publisher
IEEE
Event
Edition / version
Methods
Software
Geographic location
Date collected
Date created
Subject
Adaptive biasing; coupled-line; complex neutralization; D-band; fmax; ft; gain boosting; power amplifier (PA); U
Organisational unit
09757 - Wang, Hua / Wang, Hua