A Wideband and Linear 300 GHz Power Amplifier in 130 nm SiGe BiCMOS Technology

This talk presents an integrated power amplifier operating in the WR3.4 waveguide band between 220 and 325 GHz. The circuit is implemented in a 130 nm BiCMOS technology, which offers heterojunction bipolar transistors with ft/fmax of 500/610 GHz. Measurements show a peak gain of 21 dB, an output-referred 1 dB compression point of 11.9 dB and a saturated output power of 13.2 dBm, resulting in a peak power-added-efficiency of 4.7 %. The 3 dB bandwidth reaches 96 GHz in large signal operation. The amplifier occupies an extremely compact core area of 280 μm x 150 μm. To the best knowledge of the authors the circuit showcases the highest saturated output power and 1dB compression point among the single core SiGe power amplifiers operating above 200 GHz.