A 0.25-μm 20-dBm 2.4-GHz CMOS power amplifier with an integrated diode linearizer

A 2.4-GHz CMOS power amplifier (PA) with an output power 20 dBm using 0.25-μm 1P5M standard CMOS process is presented. The PA uses an integrated diode connected NMOS transistor as a diode linearizer. It is believed that this is the first reported use of the diode linearization technique in CMOS PA design. It shows effective improvement in linearity from gain compression and ACPR measured results. Measurements are performed by using an FR-4 PCB test fixture. The fabricated power amplifier exhibits an output power of 20 dBm and a power-added efficiency as high as 28%. The obtained PA performances demonstrate the standard CMOS process potential for medium power RF amplification at 2.4 GHz wireless communication band.