A 2.4-GHz CMOS power amplifier design for low power wireless sensors network

Power amplifier is the key component in wireless transceiver and its realization and integration in standard CMOS technology is essential for the efficient and cost effective wireless SoCs. In this work, we present a fully integrated differential power amplifier operating at 2.45 GHz realized in 0.18 µM RF CMOS process. The designed power amplifier has a built in capability to modulate the base band data using On — Off Keying (OOK) while providing a single ended output power of over +6.4 dBm to 50 Ω load impedance. Measured Power Added Efficiency (PAE) at the P1 dB of this amplifier operating at 1.8 V is around 18% and a gain flatness of less than 1 dB is observed over the frequency band 2400–2480 MHz.