RF power amplifier integration in CMOS technology

This paper explores different levels of integration for CMOS RF power amplifiers, including integration fully on chip, integration with LTCC passive components, and integration with off-chip components. At 1.9 GHz, the fully on-chip integrated CMOS PA can deliver 20 dBm output power with 16% efficiency. Because the LTCC inductors have much higher Q than the on-chip inductors, the CMOS PA integrated with passive components embedded in LTCC can improve the output power and efficiency to 24 dBm and 32% at 1.9 GHz, respectively. The 2.4 GHz Bluetooth PA with discrete passive components for output matching exhibits 22 dBm output power and 44% efficiency. To our knowledge, this paper reports the first development of fully on-chip integrated and LTCC hybrid CMOS power amplifiers.