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An efficient W-band InP DHBT digital power amplifier

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  14 March 2017

Andreas Wentzel ,
Maruf Hossain ,
Dimitri Stoppel ,
Nils Weimann ,
Viktor Krozer  and
Wolfgang Heinrich
Andreas Wentzel*
Affiliation:
Ferdinand-Braun-Institut (FBH), Leibniz-Institut für Höchstfrequenztechnik, Gustav-Kirchhoff-Str. 4, Berlin, 12489, Germany
Maruf Hossain
Affiliation:
Ferdinand-Braun-Institut (FBH), Leibniz-Institut für Höchstfrequenztechnik, Gustav-Kirchhoff-Str. 4, Berlin, 12489, Germany
Dimitri Stoppel
Affiliation:
Ferdinand-Braun-Institut (FBH), Leibniz-Institut für Höchstfrequenztechnik, Gustav-Kirchhoff-Str. 4, Berlin, 12489, Germany
Nils Weimann
Affiliation:
Ferdinand-Braun-Institut (FBH), Leibniz-Institut für Höchstfrequenztechnik, Gustav-Kirchhoff-Str. 4, Berlin, 12489, Germany
Viktor Krozer
Affiliation:
Ferdinand-Braun-Institut (FBH), Leibniz-Institut für Höchstfrequenztechnik, Gustav-Kirchhoff-Str. 4, Berlin, 12489, Germany
Wolfgang Heinrich
Affiliation:
Ferdinand-Braun-Institut (FBH), Leibniz-Institut für Höchstfrequenztechnik, Gustav-Kirchhoff-Str. 4, Berlin, 12489, Germany
*
Corresponding author: A. Wentzel Email: andreas.wentzel@fbh-berlin.de
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Abstract

This paper presents for the first time high-efficiency W-band power amplifiers (PAs), the design of which follows the digital PA (DPA) design concept. Two DPAs with different output networks have been realized: a single-band version (S-DPA) for 95 GHz and a dual-band design (D-DPA) for signal frequencies fS of 68 GHz (first band) and 76 GHz (second band), respectively. The PAs are realized as monolithic microwave-integrated circuits (MMICs) in a 0.8 μm InP DHBT transferred-substrate process. They utilize a double-emitter-finger DHBT unit cell with an emitter area of 2 × 0.8 × 6 μm3 each. In contrast to the usual W-band PAs, the proposed single-stage amplifier MMICs do not apply any special reactive matching for the transistor, which leads to very compact chip sizes of 0.27 mm2 (S-DPA) and 0.39 mm2(D-DPA). The S-DPA includes one band-pass filter (BPF) at the output with 0.6 dB insertion loss (IL) and 24 dB input return loss (RL) at the signal frequency of 95 GHz. The dual-band BPF shows 0.7 dB IL in both bands with a RL of more than 21 dB each. Applying an overdriven sinusoidal input signal to emulate digital operation the DPAs achieve a maximum output power of 14.4 dBm and power-added efficiency of 31% when using the single-band configuration. Collector efficiencies of more than 80% and the flexible multi-band operation demonstrated prove the great potential of the digital PA concept for future high-speed communications.

Keywords

InP DHBTTransferred substrateMonolithic microwave-integrated circuit (MMIC)DigitalPower amplifier (PA)Band-pass filter (BPF)Millimeter-wave integrated circuitsMMIC circuit design
Type
Research Papers
Information
International Journal of Microwave and Wireless Technologies , Volume 9 , Special Issue 6: EuMW 2016 Special Issue , July 2017 , pp. 1241 - 1249
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press and the European Microwave Association 2017 

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References

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