A 130-GHz Power Amplifier in a 250-nm InP Process with 32% PAE

This work presents a 120- to 140-GHz 250-nm Indium Phosphide (InP) HBT power amplifier (PA) capable of delivering 15-dBm saturated output power (P
_sat
) and 32% power added efficiency (PAE). The PA is designed using a pseudo-differential common-base (CB) stage to improve the power gain and power-added efficiency (PAE). A load-line matching design methodology is described for CB topology using a planar sub-quarter wavelength balun for low-loss power combining. The chip size is 0.4mm
_*
0.5mm including pads. To the author's knowledge, this is a record PAE for D-band PAs using any integrated circuit process.