A 22.5-dB gain, 20.1-dBm output power K-band power amplifier in 0.18-µm CMOS

A fully integrated power amplifier (PA) at K-band implemented in 0.18-μm CMOS process is presented. With appropriate prematch of power cells and high gain driver stage network design, the power amplifier performs 22.5 dB peak gain and saturation output power of 20.1 dBm. The 3-dB gain bandwidth is from 18-23 GHz, while the output power at 1-dB compression point (OP
_1dB
) from 19-22 GHz is over 15 dBm. To the authors' best knowledge, this is the power amplifier with the highest gain and with good output power in K-band using standard CMOS process.