A 15.5-dBm 160-GHz High-Gain Power Amplifier in SiGe BiCMOS Technology

This letter presents the design of a 160 GHz cascode based differential power amplifier (PA) realized in a 130 nm SiGe BiCMOS technology. It consists of 4 driving stages and an output power stage, providing a peak differential gain of 30 dB and a 3-dB small-signal bandwidth of around 50 GHz. Gain is enhanced by means of inductive positive feedback in the commonbase stage. By using optimally sized HBTs in the power stage and operating in the weak avalanche region, high output power is achieved. The designed PA achieves a peak differential Psat of 15.5 dBm at 160 GHz and a PAE of 7.2%, which is to-date the highest reported output power for PAs above 150 GHz, in Si-based technologies.