Design and measurement of a 2.5 GHz switched-mode CMOS power amplifier with reliability enhancement

Design and measurement results of an integrated class EF2 power amplifier on CMOS technology are presented. The class EF2 power amplifier presents lower voltage stress than its class E counterpart due to waveform engineering. The presented circuit was designed in standard ST Microelectronics CMOS 130nm and is able to deliver 19dBm RF output power from a 2 V supply voltage with 35% drain efficiency and 32% PAE at 2.5GHz. The output power spectrum presents 33dB power difference between the fundamental frequency and the strongest upper harmonic. A discussion about ground impedance is made and a PCB is used to reduce low ground inductance and DC decoupling.