Abstract
A single-stage mmWave class-A CMOS power amplifier (PA) is fabricated in a BiCMOS 55 nm technology. In order to improve the power added efficiency (PAE) behavior of the PA, a bias-control feedback loop is fully implemented on-chip in order to dynamically adjust the DC bias current of the PA according to RF envelope power level. A tunable envelope detector is connected directly at the output of the amplifier in order to track the envelope variations of the output signal. Under constant bias conditions, the PA has a power gain (Gp) of 4.2 dB, a maximum PAE of 14 %, and an output compression point of around 7.5 dBm while driving 25 mA under 1.2 V supply voltage. In adaptive bias mode, the mean value of the DC current is reduced down to 20.8 mA, while holding the same Gp, leading to a good enhancement of the PAE over the linear input dynamic range of the PA. Simulations and measurements with a modulated 16-QAM 700 MHz input signal show that the applied technique improves the average PAE and DC power consumption by 17 % (relative to is nominal value) without significant degradation of the signal quality. For our best knowledge, the measurements with modulated signal are the first to be done on a dynamically biased mmWave PA.
Similar content being viewed by others
References
Pfeiffer, U. R. (2006). A 20dBm fully-integrated 60 GHz sige power amplifier with automatic level control. In Proc. European Solid-State Circuits Conference (ESSCIRC) (pp. 356–359).
Liu, J. Y., Berenguer, R., & Chang, M. F. (2012). Millimeter-wave self-healing power amplifier with adaptive amplitude and phase linearization in 65-nm CMOS. IEEE Transactions on Microwave Theory and Techniques (MTT), 60(5), 1342–1352.
Oishi, K., et al. (2014). A 1.95 GHz fully integrated envelope elimination and restoration CMOS Power amplifier using timing alignment technique for WCDMA and LTE. IEEE Journal of Solid-State Circuits (JSSCC), 49(12), 2915–2924.
Kim, J., et al. (2013). Envelope-tracking two-stage power amplifier with dual-mode supply modulator for LTE applications. IEEE Transactions on Microwave Theory and Techniques, 61(1), 543–552.
Noh, Y. S., & Park, C. S. (2004). An intelligent power amplifier MMIC using a new adaptive bias control circuit for W-CDMA applications. IEEE Journal of Solid-State Circuits (JSSCC), 39(6), 967–970.
Cripps, S. C. (1999). RF Power amplifiers for wireless communications. norwood. MA: Artech House.
Serhan, A., et al. (2014). Comparison between MOS and bipolar mm-wave power amplifiers in advanced SiGe technologies. In Proc. Bipolar/BiCMOS Circuits and Technology Meeting (BCTM) (pp. 159–162).
Quemerais, T., et al. (2010). A CMOS class-A 65 nm power amplifier for 60 GHz applications. In: Silicon monolithic integrated circuits in RF systems (SiRF), Topical Meeting on (pp. 120–123)
Chen, W.-C., Tsai, J.-H., Chen, S.-Y., Huang, T.-W. (2005) ACPR and IM3R correlation of broadband signals in microwave and millimeter wave frequencies. In Proc. Integrated circuits for wideband communication and wireless sensor networks (pp. 150–152).
IEEE (2009) Part 15.3: wireless medium access control and physical layer specifications for high rate wireless area network, amendment 2: millimeter-wave based alternative physical layer extension, IEEE 802.15.3c, USA.
Hewlett-Packard (2012) Wireless LAN at 60 GHz - IEEE 802.11ad. http://cp.literature.agilent.com/litweb/pdf/5990-9697EN.pdf (pp. 4–5).
Acknowledgments
This work has been performed in the RF2THZ SiSoC project of the EUREKA program CATRENE in which the G-INP partner is funded by the DGCIS, France.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Serhan, A., Lauga-Larroze, E., Corrao, N. et al. Fully-integrated bias control feed-back loop for efficiency enhancement of mmWave CMOS power amplifier. Analog Integr Circ Sig Process 89, 3–14 (2016). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10470-016-0790-5
Received:
Revised:
Accepted:
Published:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10470-016-0790-5