An NP Matrix-Based E-Band Power Amplifier Achieving 24-Gbit/s Data Rate Using 256 QAM in 22-nm FD-SOI

This article presents a wideband ultralinear fully integrated power amplifier (PA) in 22-nm fully-depleted silicon-on-insulator (FD-SOI) technology for phased array-based
$E$
-band backhaul networks. A novel amplitude to phase modulation (AMPM) compensation technique called NP (N-type P-type) matrix is presented. The performance of the proposed amplifier compared to a traditional N-type common-source (CS) PA is demonstrated in simulation across the corners and wide frequency range. The proposed PA occupies 0.084 mm
²
core area and achieves peak 13.1-/13.7-dB gain, 61.8–83.7 GHz (21.9 GHz) 3-dB small signal bandwidth with 0.8 V/1 V supply. At 78 GHz, 13.8-/15.4-dBm peak saturated output power (
$P_{\text {SAT}}$
) with 13.1%/17% PAE from 0.8 V/1 V supply is measured, respectively. AMPM distortion at the output referred 1-dB compression point (
$\text{OP}_{\text {1dB}}$
) is less than 3.6° from 65 to 90 GHz. It achieves 18-/24-Gbit/s data rate with 10.7-/8.5-dBm average output power and 8%/4.9% average PAE at 73 GHz with 64/256 QAM modulation and a 0.8-V supply.