• JSTS:Journal of Semiconductor Technology and Science
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• v.16 no.3
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• pp.339-345
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• 2016

This paper presents a two-stage power amplifier MMIC using a $0.4{\mu}m$ GaN-HEMT process. The two-stage structure provides high gain and compact circuit size using an integrated inter-stage matching network. The size and loss of the inter-stage matching network can be reduced by including bond wires as part of the matching network. The two-stage power amplifier MMIC was fabricated with a chip size of $2.0{\times}1.9mm^2$ and was mounted on a $4{\times}4$ QFN carrier for evaluation. Using a downlink LTE signal with a PAPR of 6.5 dB and a channel bandwidth of 10 MHz for the 2.6 GHz band, the power amplifier MMIC exhibited a gain of 30 dB, a drain efficiency of 32%, and an ACLR of -31.4 dBc at an average output power of 36 dBm. Using two power amplifier MMICs for the carrier and peaking amplifiers, a Doherty power amplifier was designed and implemented. At a 6 dB back-off output power level of 39 dBm, a gain of 24.7 dB and a drain efficiency of 43.5% were achieved.

• Journal of IKEEE
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• v.26 no.3
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• pp.456-461
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• 2022

In this paper, a two-stage single-ended power amplifier (PA) with broadband gain characteristics was presented by utilizing a radio frequency (RF) transformer (TF), which is essential for a differential amplifier. The bandwidth of a PA can be improved by designing TF to have broadband characteristics and then applying it to the inter-stage matching network (IMN) of a PA. For broadband gain characteristics while maintaining the performance and area of the existing PA, an IMN was implemented on an monolithic microwave integrated circuit (MMIC) and a multi-layer printed circuit board (PCB), and the simulation results were compared. As a result of simulating the PA module designed using InGaP/GaAs HBT model, it has been confirmed that the PA employing the proposed design method has an improved fractional bandwidth of 19.8% at a center frequency of 3.3GHz, while the conventional PA showed that of 11.2%.

• JSTS:Journal of Semiconductor Technology and Science
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• v.16 no.5
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• pp.687-694
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• 2016

A differential power amplifier operating at millimeter-wave frequencies is demonstrated using a 65-nm CMOS technology. All of the input, output, and inter-stage network are implemented by transformers only, enabling impedance matching with low loss and a wide bandwidth. The millimeter-wave power amplifier exhibits measured small-signal gain exceeding 12.6 dB over a 3-dB bandwidth from 45 to 56 GHz. The output power and PAE are 13 dBm and 11.7%, respectively at 50 GHz.

• The Journal of Korean Institute of Electromagnetic Engineering and Science
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• v.27 no.1
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• pp.20-26
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• 2016

This paper presents an X-band two-stage power amplifier using GaN-HEMT. Two-stage structure was adopted to take its high gain and simple inter-stage matching network. Based on a 3D EM simulation, the bond-wire inductance and the parasitic capacitance were predicted. By reducing bond-wire inductance, Q of the matching network is decreased and the bandwidth is improved. The implemented two-stage PA shows a power gain of more than 16 dB, saturated output power of more than 42.5 dBm, and a efficiency of more than 35 % in frequency range of 8.1~8.5 GHz with an operating voltage of 40 V.

• JSTS:Journal of Semiconductor Technology and Science
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• v.8 no.4
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• pp.289-294
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• 2008

A 77 GHz 3-stage low noise amplifier (LNA) employing one common source and two cascode stages is developed using $0.13{\mu}m$ CMOS process. To compensate for the low gain which is caused by lossy silicon substrate and parasitic element of CMOS transistor, positive feedback technique using parasitic inductance of bypass capacitor is adopted to cascode stages. The developed LNA shows gain of 7.2 dB, Sl1 of -16.5 dB and S22 of -19.8 dB at 77 GHz. The return loss bandwidth of LNA is 71.6 to 80.9 GHz (12%). The die size is as small as $0.7mm\times0.8mm$ by using bias line as inter-stage matching networks. This LNA shows possibility of 77 GHz automotive RADAR system using $0.13{\mu}m$ CMOS process, which has advantage in cost compared to sub-100 nm CMOS process.

• JSTS:Journal of Semiconductor Technology and Science
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• v.7 no.2
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• pp.98-101
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• 2007

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.