A Broadband 110-170-GHz Stagger-Tuned Power Amplifier With 13.5-dBm Psat in 130-nm SiGe

This letter presents a fully integrated three-stage single-ended $D$ -band power amplifier (PA) designed in 0.13- $\mu \text{m}$ silicon–germanium (SiGe) BiCMOS technology. Several bandwidth extension techniques and matching networks are mutually exploited to maximize Bandwidth (BW) performance while assuring unconditional stability. Its measured 3-dB bandwidth covers the entire $D$ -band (110–170 GHz). The PA has a small-signal peak gain of 21 dB at 151 GHz. Its saturated output power ( $P_{\mathrm{ sat}}$ ) in the $D$ -band varies from 11.8 to 13.9 dBm and its output referred 1-dB compression point (OP1 dB) from 9.2 to 12.5 dBm within the $D$ -band. The presented amplifier occupies $0.65\times 0.47$ mm2 (including pads) and draws a current of 115 mA from a 3.3-V supply. To the best of our knowledge, these performances represent the state of the art in silicon technology with a minimum ( $P_{\mathrm{ sat}}$ ) of 11.8 dBm and (OP1 dB) of 9.2 dBm covering the entire $D$ -band.