A 28/37/39GHz Multiband Linear Doherty Power Amplifier in Silicon for 5G Applications

TL;DR

This paper introduces a multiband mm-wave linear Doherty power amplifier in silicon for 5G, featuring a novel transformer-based combiner and a co-design method that enhances bandwidth and efficiency without extra hardware.

Contribution

It presents the first multiband mm-wave linear Doherty PA in silicon, with a new transformer-based combiner and a driver-PA co-design approach for improved performance.

Findings

Achieves 52% -3dB bandwidth and 40% -1dB saturated power bandwidth.

Delivers +17 dBm saturated output power at 28/37/39 GHz.

Demonstrates multi-Gb/s data rates with high efficiency and linearity.

Abstract

This paper presents the first multiband mm-wave linear Doherty PA in silicon for broadband 5G applications. We introduce a new transformer-based on-chip Doherty power combiner, which can reduce the impedance transformation ratio in power back-off (PBO) and thus improve the bandwidth and power-combining efficiency. We also devise a "driver-PA co-design" method, which creates power-dependent uneven feeding in the Doherty PA and enhances the Doherty operation without any hardware overhead or bandwidth compromise. For the proof of concept, we implement a 28/37/39-GHz PA fully integrated in a standard 130-nm SiGe BiCMOS process, which occupies 1.8mm2. The PA achieves a 52% -3-dB small-signal S21 bandwidth and a 40% -1-dB large-signal saturated output power (Psat) bandwidth. At 28/37/39GHz, the PA achieves +16.8/+17.1/+17-dBm Psat, +15.2/+15.5/+15.4-dBm P1dB, and superior 1.72/1.92/1.62 times efficiency enhancement over class-B operation at 5.9/6/6.7-dB PBO. Moreover, the PA demonstrates multi-Gb/s data rates with excellent efficiency and linearity for 64QAM in all the three 5G bands. This PA advances the state of the art for Doherty, wideband, and 5G silicon PAs in mm-wave bands. It supports drop-in upgrade for current PAs in existing mm-wave systems and opens doors to compact system solutions for future multiband 5G massive MIMO and phased-array platforms.