A fully-integrated self-healing power amplifier

A fully-integrated self-healing mm-wave power amplifier heals process variation, load mismatch, and transistor failure with on-chip sensors, actuators and an integrated digital algorithm ASIC without external calibration. Measurements of 20 chips showed increased RF power up to 3dB, or reduced DC power by 50% in backoff at 28 GHz. Healing 4-1 VSWR load mismatch for RF and DC power improvement was verified, and healing after laser induced transistor failure increased RF power up to 4.8dB.