Abstract
A fully integrated 5-GHz CMOS power amplifier for IEEE 802.11a WLAN applications is implemented using $0.18-{\mu}m$ CMOS technology. An on-chip transmission-line transformer is used for output matching network and voltage combining. Input balun, inter-stage matching components, output transmission line transformer and RF chokes are fully integrated in the designed amplifier so that no external components are required. The power amplifier occupies a total area of $1.7mm{\times}1.2mm$. At a 3.3-V supply voltage, the amplifier exhibits a 22.6-dBm output 1-dB compression point, 23.8-dBm saturated output power, 25-dB power gain. The measured power added efficiency (PAE) is 20.1 % at max. peak, 18.8% at P1dB. When 54 Mbps/64 QAM OFDM signal is applied, the PA delivers 12dBm of average power at the EVM of -25dB.