A 21.5–26.4 GHz CMOS cascode driver amplifier with 13.9 dBm output power for 24G FMCW radar applications

This paper presents a 21.5-26.4 GHz CMOS cascode driver amplifier (DA) for 24G radar applications. The two stacked cascode configuration can provide enough output power and power gain under the limitation of low gate-oxide breakdown voltage and low drain-source reach-through voltage, ensuring the reliability of long-term work. Reasonably taking advantage of the virtual ground of the differential structure helps to achieve a compact layout without degrading performance. It is fabricated in 65 nm CMOS with a core chip area of 0.3 mm
²
(600 μm × 500 μm). At 24 GHz, the measurement results demonstrate the DA delivers saturated output power (P
_sat
)of 13.9 dBm, output 1 dB compression point (OP1dB) of 9.02 dBm, with a peak PAE of 20 % and gain of 23.6 dB. From 21 to 26 GHz, the DA achieves OP1dB lager than 9 dBm.