SiGe power amplifier for automotive radar applications from 76 to 81 GHz

This work presents a power amplifier for automotive radar applications based on the differential cascode topology. The power amplifier is manufactured in a 130 nm SiGe BiCMOS technology. At 77 GHz, the peak power added efficiency is 16 % at an output power of 17 dBm. Furthermore, the linear gain is 14.2 dB and the maximum saturated output power reaches 17.5 dBm. The chip consumes an area of 0.29 mm2 excluding the pads and is characterized between 25 and 125 degrees Celsius. A 1 dB bandwidth for the output power of 12 GHz is observed covering a frequency range from 73 GHz to 85 GHz. The output-referred 1 dB compression point of the power amplifier is 14.5 dBm.