3-Path 5–6 GHz 0.25 μm SiGe BiCMOS power amplifier on thin substrate

This paper presents a fully integrated class-A mode Differential Power Amplifier (DPA) on a thin silicon substrate intended for being embedded into flexible electronic foil systems. A high-speed and cost-effective 95 GHz-f
_max
, 0.25 μm SiGe:C technology (IHP process SGB25V) is used. RF performance of DPA has been evaluated with the pre- and post-thinning measurement results at die level. The behavior of the PA has been optimized for 5-6 GHz frequency band and achieves 10.85 dB and 10 dB small-signal gain at 5.5 GHz before and after thinning, respectively. The measured large signal gain of amplifier at P
_in
0 dBm is 10 dB before and 9.4 dB after thinning process. The simulated output referred 1 dB compression point is 10.76 dBm with a PAE of 15%. The PA consumes 50 mA under 1.5 V supply voltage. After thinning process, the supply current is lowered by 3 mA.