A 65nm CMOS 30dBm class-E RF power amplifier with 60% power added efficiency

A 30 dBm single-ended class-E RF power amplifier (PA) is fabricated in 65 nm CMOS technology. The PA is a cascode stage formed by a standard thin-oxide device and a high voltage extended-drain thick-oxide device. Both devices are implemented in a standard sub-micron CMOS technology without using extra masks or processing steps. The proposed PA uses an innovative self-biasing technique to ensure high power-added efficiency (PAE) at both high output power (Pout) and power back-off levels. At 2 GHz, the PA achieves a PAE of 60% at a Pout of 30 dBm and a PAE of 40% at 16 dB back-off.