90 GHz Bandwidth Single-Ended PA for D-Band Applications in BiCMOS Technology

Abstract

This paper presents the design of a single-ended power amplifier (PA) based on a 130-nm SiGe BiCMOS process with the $f_{max}$ of 500 GHz. The PA comprises of three stages, with each stage based on cascode topology. The design was optimized to obtain a peak gain of 30 dB with 3-dB bandwidth larger than D-band (110-170 GHz) and peak output power higher than 12 dBm. The simulation results show that the PA can provide average peak gain of 30 dB with 3-dB bandwidth of 90 GHz. In terms of large-signal, it provides output power and PAE larger than 12 dBm, and 5%, respectively, at 115-180 GHz. Moreover, it provides an output power greater than 10dBm at 105-200 GHz. The PA is highly suitable for the development of broadband sub- THz signal sources. The future work includes measurement of the PA.