A 55–67GHz power amplifier with 13.6% PAE in 65 nm standard CMOS

A four-stage power amplifier (PA) covering 55-67GHz band is presented. The broadband performance is achieved owing to π-section interstage matching network. Three-stage-current-reuse topology is proposed to enhance efficiency. The amplifier has been fabricated in 65 nm digital CMOS. 18 dB power gain and 9.6 dBm saturated power (P
_sat
) are achieved at 60GHz. The PA consumes current of 52 mA at 1.2 V supply voltage, and has a peak power-added efficiency (PAE) of 13.6%. To the best of the authors' knowledge, this work shows the highest PAE among the reported CMOS PAs with less-than-1.2 V supply voltage and covering the worldwide 9GHz millimeter-wave band.