A 1.8-GHz CMOS Power Amplifier Using a Dual-Primary Transformer With Improved Efficiency in the Low Power Region

A 1.8-GHz CMOS power amplifier for a polar transmitter is implemented with a 0.18- RF CMOS process. The matching components, including the input and output transformers, were integrated. A dual-primary transformer is proposed in order to increase the efficiency in the low power region of the amplifier. The loss induced by the matching network for the low-output power region is minimized using the dual-primary transformer. The amplifier achieved a power-added efficiency of 40.7% at a maximum output power of 31.6 dBm. The dynamic range was 34 dB for a supply voltage that ranged from 0.5 to 3.3 V. The low power efficiency was 32% at the output power of 16 dBm.