Gate oxide breakdown on low noise and power amplifier performance

This paper, for the first time, studies the influence nMOSFET gate oxide breakdown (BD) has on the performance of CMOS low noise amplifiers (LNA) and power amplifiers (PA) using an equivalent RF circuit model. Cascode LNAs are found to be more reliable than common source LNAs in terms of gate oxide reliability. It is shown for a Class-E PA oxide breakdown effects lead to an increase in the switching transistor's "on" voltage, which, in turn leads to substantial decreases in the output power and drain efficiency.