A low cost power amplifier for 5-GHz W-LAN applications (invited paper)

A monolithic 5-GHz RF linear power amplifier for W-LAN IEEE802.11a applications was integrated using a very low cost 35-GHz-f/sub T/ bipolar process. The process adopts a selective germanium implant technique to optimize the base profile. The two-stage power amplifier exhibits a 8-dB power gain, a 27-dBm P/sub 1dB/ and a 27% power added efficiency (PAE). Thanks to an optimized linearization technique the power amplifier is able to comply with the stringent error vector magnitude (EVM) requirement of the standard up to 23-dBm output power with an IEEE802.11a 54-Mbit/s input signal.