A 31-dBm, high ruggedness power amplifier in 65-nm standard CMOS with high-efficiency stacked-cascode stages

A novel, high ruggedness power amplifier topology in a 65-nm CMOS technology is proposed. The proposed stacked cascode topology uses only standard devices available in a modern triple-well CMOS process to achieve breakdown voltages of more than 18V. The power amplifier stage delivers 28 dBm output power at a power-added efficiency (PAE) of 69.9% from a 3.6V supply. The saturation gain is 18 dB. A watt-level power amplifier for GSM low-band operation with 31-dBm output power and 61% PAE is presented.