A Highly Compact 1W Ku-Band Power Amplifier

This paper presents a highly compact double-balanced two-stage Ku-Band SiGe power amplifier. Four power cells are combined in a balanced architecture which occupies less than 2mm
²
. As a proof of concept, the power amplifier was designed with a 0.13-μm SiGe BiCMOS technology. The simulated performances at 18GHz exhibit a saturated power higher than 30dBm up to 90°C, a linear gain of 21.2dB and a peak power added efficiency of 26.5%.