Fully integrated distributed power amplifier in CMOS technology, optimized for UWB transmitters

A power amplifier (PA) using the distributed amplifier technique for the ultra wideband (UWB) standard is presented. The amplifier is fabricated in a standard 0.13 /spl mu/m CMOS technology and comes with on-chip biasing circuitry and a non-distributed input stage. Measurement results are given for a chip-on-board module to take any influence of product assembly into account. It achieves a transmission coefficient S/sub 21/ = 17 dB, a corner frequency of f/sub c/ = 8 GHz and a 1 dB compression point of A/sub 1dB/ = 3.5 dBm. The output impedance is matched to 50 /spl Omega/ so that external matching circuitry can be omitted. With these features, it is customized to be integrated with other building blocks to a fully integrated CMOS UWB transmitter product.