A fully monolithic 0.18 μm SiGe BiCMOS power amplifier design

A fully monolithic power amplifier (PA) for multi-mode front end IC integration is presented. The PA is fabricated in an IBM 7WL 0.18 μm SiGe BiCMOS process with all the matching networks integrated on a chip. After load-pull test to find the best power stage size and layout optimization, the measured results show that the PA can obtain a 24 dBm maximum output power at 2.4 GHz, the output 1 dB compression point is 21 dBm at 5 dBm input, and the PAE is 18%. This PA is complete on-chip tested without any bonding wires and on-board matching, targeting fully power module integration in multi-mode system on chip.