Quasi Inverse Class-F X-Band Highly Efficient Power Amplifier with 51.8% Peak PAE in SiGe

Abstract

This paper presents a compact quasi inverse class-F highly efficient power amplifier (PA) based on the 130 nm SiGe technology. The purpose is to drive high output power with high power added efficiency (PAE) over the X-band, while ensuring a good amplitude and phase linearity. To do that, a differential cascode topology with low base impedance has been used. Measured results exhibit 51.8% peak PAE with 25.7 dBm output power at 9 GHz. To our knowledge, this PA demonstrates the highest efficiency with linear behaviour among Si-based X-band power amplifiers found in literature.