Design of a 120-GHz Compact Transformer-Based Power Amplifier in 22-nm FDSOI

This paper presents an area-efficient and energy efficient power amplifier (PA) in 22-nm FDSOI technology at 120-G Hz. The design is based on capacitive neutralized gain cells and transformer matching networks (TMNs). Measurements of the fabricated PA show the maximum power-added-efficiency (PAE) of 5.6% and saturated output power (Psat) of 5.5 dBm with only 47 mW DC power consumption at 0.8 V supply. With boosted power supply up to 1.2 V, the maximum PAE measured is 8.1% and Psat is increased to 10.6 dBm, power gain 24.5 dB, consuming 98mW DC Power. Core area of the design is 0.0268 mm².