A 117.5-130 GHz 22.1 dBm 11.5% PAE DAT Based Power Amplifier in InP 130 nm HBT Technology

An 8-way combined power amplifier is demonstrated in InP 130nm HBT technology. Each power unit adopts a stacked topology to overcome breakdown voltage limitations. A distributive active transformer is implemented as a low-loss power combiner, with directly matched impedance for each power unit by utilizing capacitive tuning at the output. The proposed amplifier achieves a maximum output power of 22.1 dBm with 11.5% PAE at 120 GHz, and obtains a 3 dB small signal bandwidth from 100 GHz to 140 GHz.